The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Negotiation is extremely limited. Because you are bound by contract to work for them, you really have no leverage to negotiate.

In moving from an internship at a non-DoD lab prior to finishing my Ph.D. to my current position in the DoD with a Ph.D., I took a pay-cut. You might ask, "Why would anyone accept a deal like that?" One reason is that salary was one of the details of post-graduation employment about which the SMART program was elusive when I was applying.

I think this was discussed at some point.

You can try to negotiate salary, but they're going to be fairly fixed on their base salary+COLA adjust. If you already have the scholarship, you won't be punished for asking, but don't expect much.

I also don't have an answer, but I'm not exactly sure what sort of negotiating power you would have since you're contractually obligated to work for them once you're out.

I mean forgetting "eligibility", how exactly would you negotiate with someone when both sides of the table know the end result is that you accept the offer? I suppose you could ask and state how you see your value reflected in your asking salary.

PS. Hookem? I guess I'm not the only Longhorn in the program...

I don't have an answer for you, but I would also like to know the answer. I'm graduating this semester and have yet to receive an offer from my SF. Anyone else graduating this semester?

cheers!

Can anybody please tell me if SMART scholars are eligible to negotiate their salaries when the SF offered them positions?

Thank you!