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site visit approaching

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 10:19 am
by sitevisit
What do I do if my site visit is approaching and SMART hasn't contacted me about my travel stipend? I dont have the $700 for a plane ticket or the $200 for a hotel.

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 4:00 pm
by kbl2017
sitevisit wrote:What do I do if my site visit is approaching and SMART hasn't contacted me about my travel stipend? I dont have the $700 for a plane ticket or the $200 for a hotel.
I asked my parents to cover me... I got told it will be one to two weeks before we are paid after we get the site visit approval.

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 5:29 pm
by Guest
kbl2017 wrote:
sitevisit wrote:What do I do if my site visit is approaching and SMART hasn't contacted me about my travel stipend? I dont have the $700 for a plane ticket or the $200 for a hotel.
I asked my parents to cover me... I got told it will be one to two weeks before we are paid after we get the site visit approval.
And for those of us that don't have our parents paying for things it's a bit harder

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Fri May 26, 2017 7:59 pm
by kbl2017
Guest wrote:
kbl2017 wrote:
sitevisit wrote:What do I do if my site visit is approaching and SMART hasn't contacted me about my travel stipend? I dont have the $700 for a plane ticket or the $200 for a hotel.
I asked my parents to cover me... I got told it will be one to two weeks before we are paid after we get the site visit approval.
And for those of us that don't have our parents paying for things, it's a bit harder

You will be paid the $2000 in the next few weeks as long as you are living more than 50 miles away, it's not like an empty promise I made to my parents by asking them to cover me. SMART also will not contact you, they upload a form into your award site saying the date you were approved on it. I was approved today, which basically means I probably won't see any funds until the day of travel to my SF.

Sorry that you're not willing to ask for help when you need it. Those are your options find someone to spot you parent, friend, other family member or pay a ridiculous price for your trip once you receive the travel money. Or use whatever savings you can scrounge up and buy the flight before it increases even more and hopefully you get covered sooner rather than later. Or get a credit card.

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 9:25 am
by clemson
Why don't you just book the trip on a credit card and by the time you pay off the credit card bill (mid July) you will have the money from SMART anyway.

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:39 pm
by guest123
My site visit dates are in 2 weeks and all I've gotten out of my SF are the dates and an address. Should I expect anything else? The POC on my SMART award letter handed me off (After not responding for a week) to a guy (guy2) that only set up me up with calendar dates and sent me back to the POC who then said I was supposed to make plans with guy2. I just want to know simple questions like, "what time of day should I arrive/expect to be done? Is someone making an itinerary for me?"

I'd like to hear what other people are experiencing or how you are working this out yourself. I don't want to come off as needy, but I feel like more details are warranted.

Re: site visit approaching

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 9:59 pm
by kbl2017
guest123 wrote:My site visit dates are in 2 weeks and all I've gotten out of my SF are the dates and an address. Should I expect anything else? The POC on my SMART award letter handed me off (After not responding for a week) to a guy (guy2) that only set up me up with calendar dates and sent me back to the POC who then said I was supposed to make plans with guy2. I just want to know simple questions like, "what time of day should I arrive/expect to be done? Is someone making an itinerary for me?"

I'd like to hear what other people are experiencing or how you are working this out yourself. I don't want to come off as needy, but I feel like more details are warranted.
We were given the dates - then I finally asked about two weeks before if I needed a car. For us, the government provided transportation and around the two-week mark told us a hotel to book/where they would pick us up in the AM. Then we didn't get any info besides the dates until about two days before. I would just plan to arrive the day before and leave fairly late in the evening or the next day after.

We did two very full work days.