I didn't realize what was going on until you have posted this, but this all makes sense. I have been monitoring this forum for quite some time with many of you thinking the same thing. I have worked for the DoD and actually spoke to a number of people about the NDSEG program and how it works (i.e. the evaluation process), this might make a little more sense now.
Each of the branchs, Army, Navy, Air Force have an equal number of fellowship they give out, I believe it was 63 per branch in the past. After the initial browse through for elibility by ASEE, each of the branches receive all the applications, each of the branches ARO, AFOSR, and NRO evaluate the applications and make a list of people 1-X where x is the number of people they choose to rank. At the completion of this, a conference call takes place between representatives from ARO, AFOSR, and NRO to create a "Master List" of applicants ranking them according to the list they agreed upon.
Once this list is made, it is given to ASEE and they handle it from there. So this idea of doing it by discipline is not really true, that has already been taken care of at this point most likely. This does not mean that anyone is out of the running though. Should any of the applicants choose not to accept, the first person from the waitinglist will be choosen, and the process continues until funds run out.
I believe that that point, we will be notified of "status of our application" (i.e all the funds have dried up)
