The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

It appears to largely depend on the facilities you're selected by. I also have determined this forum does not represent the majority of scholarship recipients visiting my SF with me had never even found this. You're also more likely to post a negative review than a positive review on things.

The DoD and government in general is mainly in charge of the paperwork aspect of things with contracted out help doing the actual work. However, even in the "paperwork heavy" positions the work is important...you just have to be able to step back and look at it that way. I personally think for a two year commitment you will benefit a lot. You'll get grad school paid for completely, plus some. You'll gain two years of government experience making you way more marketable in any contracted government work. You'll get security clearance. It also may give you the chance to explore different career paths within your branch and if you're doing "menial tasks" they might be related to something really cool so you can network and end up somewhere you love in two years.

I am considering applying to this scholarship to fund my M.S. in electrical engineering. My specialization will be nanoelectronics (semiconductor devices, device physics, etc.). I applied for this scholarship a couple years ago and did not get it. However, after applying, I came to this forum and read the testimonials of many dissatisfied recipients who found themselves performing menial work as part of the employment as opposed to actual engineering or research.

Are most recipients still in this situation? Has anything changed? I will apply regardless (because I can always turn it down later) but in a forum post I made a couple of years ago, all recipients who answered me told me not to go for this scholarship unless I absolutely needed the money. Should I still follow this advice?

Are there any SFs which have a reputation for treating their SMART scholars as real engineers and scientists?

Will I leave with technical skills and expertise I didn't have before?