The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Everyone else get the email saying we are waiting until early may? :(

Same. Here's the email, for those who haven't seen it:

Dear SMART Scholarship Applicant,

Thank you for your application to the SMART Scholarship Program. We are still reviewing applications and hope to make awards by the beginning of May. If you have further questions or wish to remove yourself from the scholarship consideration, please contact us.

Regards,

SMART Scholarship Program
smart@asee.org
(202) 350-5715

Question - if you got this email, does it mean you're still in the running? I never got any semifinalist email, but I got this one...

CW

Same email as well. Nearly had a heart attack when I saw the subject line.

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

Guest wrote:Question - if you got this email, does it mean you're still in the running? I never got any semifinalist email, but I got this one...

CW

That is a good question. I would think so. On top of which I would think if you hadn't gotten the semi finals one and were out you would have gotten a no longer in consideration type email.

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

does your grad school require a money deposit? Mine didn't so I accepted it anyway....

It'd behoove you to choose a graduate school based off your interests. After all you can apply for SMART next year and you need to finish your grad program successfully in order to work for the sf.

Guest11111 wrote:It'd behoove you to choose a graduate school based off your interests. After all you can apply for SMART next year and you need to finish your grad program successfully in order to work for the sf.

Unless you can't afford graduate school without a scholarship.

Theres always student loans to consider

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.