by 2015 SMART » Thu Apr 06, 2017 5:02 pm
Guest wrote:Ya what the heck are we supposed to do? I have the deadline for graduate school acceptance fast approaching and I literally can't make any decisions till I know about this scholarship
As pessimistic as it seems, you should probably prepare as if you will not be getting the scholarship. I'm sure you're extremely qualified, but the thing is that so many people are qualified to get the award that it's very difficult to be selected.
Since school acceptance deadlines are coming up very soon, it would be best to plan ahead and create separate decision trees - one for if you get the award, one for if you don't get it, and one for if you get it but absolutely hate your placement. If you have this plan now, you can submit your decisions as soon as you hear back from SMART.
If it's getting very close to the school deadline and SMART still hasn't said anything, try asking the school for an extension. Get as narrow as possible with this request - for example, don't contact the university, contact the department. Or if you have a specific professor, even better - the more personal the connection is, the more likely they are to grant you an exception to the deadline. I'm sure they would understand, especially because (I assume) they did not give you funding themselves, which is a bit unusual for a STEM grad program.
[quote="Guest"]Ya what the heck are we supposed to do? I have the deadline for graduate school acceptance fast approaching and I literally can't make any decisions till I know about this scholarship[/quote]
As pessimistic as it seems, you should probably prepare as if you will not be getting the scholarship. I'm sure you're extremely qualified, but the thing is that so many people are qualified to get the award that it's very difficult to be selected.
Since school acceptance deadlines are coming up very soon, it would be best to plan ahead and create separate decision trees - one for if you get the award, one for if you don't get it, and one for if you get it but absolutely hate your placement. If you have this plan now, you can submit your decisions as soon as you hear back from SMART.
If it's getting very close to the school deadline and SMART still hasn't said anything, try asking the school for an extension. Get as narrow as possible with this request - for example, don't contact the university, contact the department. Or if you have a specific professor, even better - the more personal the connection is, the more likely they are to grant you an exception to the deadline. I'm sure they would understand, especially because (I assume) they did not give you funding themselves, which is a bit unusual for a STEM grad program.