<p>Is anyone receiving the SMART scholarship? </p>
<p>I applied last year as a freshman and made the first round of cuts, then withdrew my application. The reason being is that you REALLY have to want to want to work in the DoD. They want people who are going to the work for the DoD or somewhere in the military sector for the rest of their lives; personally I was not able to commit to that.</p>
<p>If your passion since being a little kid was to work for/at the DoD in some respect, it is an INCREDIBLE deal. If you are not 100% sure, apply, do some soul searching, and if you don’t want it, then you can withdraw.</p>
<p>I’m a smart scholarship recipient. There’s another thread around here about it, but the best source of information beyond the smart website is probably the forum that I have setup. [The</a> Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum View Topic - My Experience with the Application Process](<a href=“** UPDATED ** My Experience with the Application Process - The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum”>** UPDATED ** My Experience with the Application Process - The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say you’re nearly attached to the department of defense as Kickback says. Yes, they want you to work for them and stay beyond your commitment. However, the goal of the program is not just government engineers. I’m sure you’ve heard it before that the country does not have enough engineers, but really, that’s not quite true. We do not have enough highly skilled American engineers. It’s hard enough finding someone who really knows how to solve the navigation equations or can accurately model hairpin vortexes in turbulent flow, but when your require they be American citizens capable of holding and maintaining a security clearance, it’s downright obnoxious.</p>
<p>Pretty bluntly, for many of the majors, if you’re not working for the government, you’re working for a government contractor.</p>
<p>…and you’ll probably be paid better out of college than in industry anyway</p>
<p>I should probably append my previous post; I am majoring in biomedical engineering, and I am possibly looking to attend medical school or go through the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD). I called and asked about doing this last year; they said that they really frown upon students doing this, because they want engineers/scientists, as drinkmorejava said. I am in a phase where I am deciding if I want to go to medical school or stay in engineering, so it wasn’t prudent for me to commit to the engineering side. I wouldn’t mind working in the DoD, which my previous post sounded the exact opposite of. I wouldn’t want to commit to working in the military sector of biomedical engineering, though.</p>
<p>I would say about half of the majors listed would probably work as contractors through the DoD/DoE. Aerospace, Nuclear, and Naval engineering, and operational research? Absolutely! Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, and Civil engineers? Not really.</p>