<p>Yes, I have also been designated as an Alternate. What they basically told me was that they were not done giving out awards… April 15th (I guess April 17th now?) is when they finalize all the allocations. Not that it makes me feel all that much better… but I am hoping they do find funding. I asked them specifically how they choose the alternate if someone were to decline, and they said it’s based off your field of study.</p>
<p>“NPS is allocating funding to choose some alternates as awardees. In
addition, if awardees are to decline the slot will open for an alternate
in that field. Your application is still being considered. We will get
back to you shortly on the final decision. Thank you for your patience.”</p>
<p>I wonder how the applicant pool breaks down as far as field of study. I noticed that most of the DoD labs are hard engineering (vs. soft engineering… BioE, ChemE) and computer science, math, physics. It was my hope initially that because I am a Chemistry major, I may face less competition… lol. And I agree with CindyWC… I would have preferred just to find out that to be strung along. </p>
<p>Yeah as far as I know the applicant pool is largely engineering/math/physics etc. I believe science majors like Chem and Oceanography and Animal Science and such make up a pretty small part of it, which actually worries me more - I feel like there’s fewer chances of people declining their offers. But that’s just me overly worrying, lol. Anyway, good luck to the rest of you alternates as well!</p>
<p>I doubt it - I think it’s more a question of were you matched up with an agency and if someone else was a better match. I also strongly suspect age may play a factor (I’m only a freshman undergrad at the moment, as is someone else that posted they were an alternate). In any case, if that was part of the reason it may have got me also, though all my relatives are in very US friendly countries.</p>
<p>Hi,
I am also in the pool of alternates for SMART scholarships. My field of study is Robotics / Computer Science, and I will be a first year grad student. It’s nice to hear from others in the same boat. I’m figuring that there may have been a bunch more applicants this year. I hope they will find the money to award as many qualified applicants as possible. Think of all the scholarships that could be awarded for the cost of one F-22 ($140 million). I know they can’t just transfer the budgets that way, but still.</p>
<p>Haha, actually I saw on the news today the pentagon’s plans to cancel the f/a-22 program. Not saying that they don’t still have a ridiculous amount of money, just like the chance to point out some irony.</p>
<p>One week to the seventeenth…! Although, if last email is an indication of anything, they may hit you with a decision any time between now and then. Kinda takes the fun out of it.</p>
<p>I can’t lie, I’ve been checking my email nonstop. Ah well. A little bit less than one week to go now!</p>
<p>And yeah… From the Naval Research numbers it said in 06 there were 49 initial awards given out out of 316 applications, and then in 07 it jumped to 125 awards out of 1600. I wonder how much the application numbers jumped to this round?</p>
<p>knightforum-
They are looking for people who are dedicated to the DoD, and wanting a career in defense research. Career- not just the required service time. Also having a great fit with a certain lab would help. The only project that I wanted to work on was the Future Force Warrior (Part of Future Combat Systems), and it looks like they’re cutting funding to that as of recently.</p>
<p>Also, they want people who can get and keep a secret clearance.</p>
<p>I doubt that the school that you attends matters that much, aside from knowing the quality of education that you are receiving, and any possible connections you may have with the program.</p>
<p>Even if I get this scholarship (I am currently an alternate), I will probably turn it down. They specifically said to me over the phone that they do not want people that are going to attend medical school, and I really want to go into an MD/PhD program. I am concentrating on having as good of an application as possible for that right now.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information Kickback. A government job, such as the DoD, has been something that I have extremely interested in. Hopefully it will work out for me.</p>
<p>I just want to wish everybody the best of luck on whatever happens, I see so many post and what everybody wants to do, and I respect everyone for their comments… so GOOD LUCK!!</p>
<p>thanks grex for that post…I am relying heavenly on those percentages, and I hope they give the alternates a great deal of consideration within those percentages.</p>
<p>Well, there are only 4 more days until April 17th, so I’m hoping to hear something real soon about this. If anyone finds out about any more information regarding the consideration of Alternates please post! I’m sweating bullets here, I’m really hoping to actually get this!</p>