The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Yes, I believe it is specific to civilians. I am a current DoD employee and just asked my department head if he'd support me in this program, and he said yes. So as a 'retention' candidate, you kinda have it easier, you don't have to go through the interview process with the different facilities. However, you still have to make the first cut and sit and wait for the offer just like everyone else!

It's somebody that already works within DOD at one of the SMART Sponsoring Facilities. I'm not sure if it applies to just DOD civilians or those that are enlisted as well.

Sorry to get off topic, but could somebody please explain retention candidate for me. From what I am possibly gathering, it is somebody that is currently enlisted in a service and applying to become a civilian at their current installation under the SMART Scholarship?

I am the guinea pig for my facility, and there are no promises of pay to off set my nearly 50% pay cut in accepting the scholarship. I'm cool w/ being a student and only making 33K/ year, but would be VERY nice to get at least a little offset to that.

As far as ANY other details, we have not discussed anything really because my facility is just as clueless as I am on how the retention aspect will work. As soon as I get my letter .:Crosses fingers:. I'll go talk to them and maybe make some calls. I would like to know if I continue to get time-in-grade and such while I'm at school. It would be nice to come back in a cpl years and be making more money (doubt that will happen).

Regarding your employer making you resign, if you get selected for an award, I would bring that up first thing with your assigned rep at the SPO.

I asked about support regarding salary for retention candidates and that lady that I spoke with said that they will go to bat for you - in your case, I would expect that they would probably have a serious discussion with your employer, as I would think that they would not condone that and probably don't want that type of thing to start happening regularly.

Not being able to cover the full salary in this climate is one thing - making you lose federal service time, your bennies and come back into the system as a new hire sounds bogus, not to mention the fact that you would no longer, by definition, be a retention candidate.

At a minimum, if you can afford to live off of the stipend at school, I would suggest asking if they will pay you enough to cover your bennies every month, that would keep you employed and keep your time going at minimal cost to them. The only potential hitch to that is they may be wanting to have you resign to free up your spot so they can hire somebody else, knowing that you'll be coming back in after school. If that's the case, I understand their intent, but still a pretty screwed up way to treat your people.

In regards to where I'll stay, I built a house here several years ago, before I even knew about SMART, and my wife already works here, so we don't want to leave. If I was moving to another facility after finishing school, it would be a different situation. Besides, between what I could sell my house for now and what it would cost to buy another house here in 3 or 4 years, it wouldn't make any sense even if I was inclined to consider it.

I've already told the SMART rep at HR here that if they can't or won't cover my salary while I'm at school, it's a no go because just making up the money I would lose would require 5% pay raises every single year for a minimum of 13 years, at which point I would be between 57 and 60 years old.

Between my situation and now yours, I'm beginning to wonder if the people that run these facilties really take any of this seriously when it comes to retention candidates. Maybe it's just me, but nonchalantly telling somebody they have to take a severe pay cut for several years or give up their job entirely like it's just a minor bump in the road doesn't demonstrate a full grasp of the gravity of the situation...

I'm in the same situation as you, J_M_S.

My current employer is making us resign in order to accept the SMART scholarship, which is even worse than not covering the salary difference (loss of salary AND government employee status). While it provides an "in" to the SMART scholarship, the benefits aren't as great for retention candidates as originally expected (my employer used to cover salary for SMART).

Upon return, I've been told I'd place basically where I am now, but a graduate degree will surely open more doors..

With your school that far away, don't they pay for relocation over the summer?

Just curious who is and what luck have you had with getting your organization to cover your salary, etc and what prospects are you looking at when you get back?

With the current budget issues in D.C., nobody is sure what's going to happen, so they may not have any additional funding, which would mean a really short trip if I made the final cut.

Even if they end up having money, it seems like it's up in the air as to whether I will be able to keep my current salary as well as get the stipend.

If I can't, I'm pretty much done, I'm three hours away from the nearest school and I am planning on staying where I am working now, so I would have to get a place to stay near the school as well as keeping my place here.

When I get back, the prospects are iffy - I'm looking at a 10-15% pay cut when I reclass as an engineer despite having 18 years of experience and by then over 300 semester hours because HR says I don't have enough "professional experience" to even justify maintaining my current pay. I'm being told that whether that sticks will depend on whether my new supervisor decides to fight to keep my current salary.

How others faring?