The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

No. Not only that, the scholarship insists that you work for the agency you were assigned to. They will threaten you to pay back the money if you even try to switch agencies to another DoD agency. Doesn't matter what the contract you sign says, they make up their own rules when they feel like it.

No.

SMART is federal (DoD) funding, and as such your commitment will likely need to be served out within DoD, and without a doubt within the federal government. State/Local government don't count in any way, shape, or form for this.

Go ahead and ask the SPO, but I guarantee their answer will be no.

[quote="You Guest It"]
2. I've been told that #1 is possible (not by the SMART program), and that it extends all the way down to the state level. As in, you can fulfill your requirement by working for a state university, etc.
[/quote]

This sounds too good to be true... And when it sounds that good it usually isn't. But on the factual side, I have had a lot of contact with SMART and my liaison (prior to the contractual change) and if you want to work off your commitment, it has to be with a facility approved by SMART (those that are listed on their webpage as SF's). Other than that (and even those), the SPO itself has to approve a change of facility in order for your time to be worked off at another facility other than your original assigned SF. This is true even if you have left the program, but likely harder to get approved since you left and signed the form that you would repay what they funded you.

[quote="You Guest It"]I am currently in the middle of my internship, and one of my bosses told me that. Now, I know he isn't an expert on the SMART program, but what he said kind of makes sense. I will say it sounds like a stretch to me. I'm not familiar with workings of government enough to really have an opinion though.

If it is true, your liaison isn't going to just hand you that possibility, and I wouldn't be surprised if my particular liaison would outright lie about it, as I'm pretty sure that my liaison has lied to me in the past.

Ultimately, this program is designed to get good people into the government. Does it matter if its at the state level or not? Who knows.[/quote]

I agree it does kind of make sense. If you leave the program outright, they do not have a method in place to accept repayment, so it would make sense that they might be willing to settle for state employment as opposed to getting no employment.

I have never had my liaison lie to me, she has actually been really nice and friendly the couple of time I have needed information from her, but there have been certain topics she said she wasn't allowed to discuss, and I assume this would be one of them.

I am currently in the middle of my internship, and one of my bosses told me that. Now, I know he isn't an expert on the SMART program, but what he said kind of makes sense. I will say it sounds like a stretch to me. I'm not familiar with workings of government enough to really have an opinion though.

If it is true, your liaison isn't going to just hand you that possibility, and I wouldn't be surprised if my particular liaison would outright lie about it, as I'm pretty sure that my liaison has lied to me in the past.

Ultimately, this program is designed to get good people into the government. Does it matter if its at the state level or not? Who knows.

I have no information or answers to offer about this, but I am very interested in hearing the answer!

This particularly intrigues me:
[quote="You Guest It"]As in, you can fulfill your requirement by working for a state university, etc.[/quote]

Can you offer any additional information about the source of this? Was it a participant who successfully did this?

From what I've gathered so far, as long as you serve your post-graduation commitment within the DoD, you're pretty much in good shape. However, there are two things I'd like to know, perhaps one of you can answer this:

1. If you left your SF to work for a federal facility that was not DoD, would SMART still accept this as service? Or would they hold you in violation of your contract?
2. I've been told that #1 is possible (not by the SMART program), and that it extends all the way down to the state level. As in, you can fulfill your requirement by working for a state university, etc.

Please post if any of you can confirm or call BS on these.