The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

If you are set on transferring, your best bet is to get your supervisor on your side. I transferred facilities and can say it would not have been possible without the supervisor I had. He was fantastic at every step of the way and made it extremely clear that he just wanted to foster new employees for the DoD.

Once my recruitment phase is over I can say with 100% certainty that I am leaving the DoD as I do not want to work for the government whatsoever, but transferring was much better than just backing out and taking that debt. Anyone that is having doubts or wants to talk can feel free to PM if they want to vent, more than happy to talk. My commitment ends August, 2021 so 21 more months!

[quote="SMARTRegret"]Just transfer without their blessing.

As long as you're employed by a federal agency you're fulfilling your end of the contract.

If SMART says anything, tell them they were breaching the contract by having you do work that isn't related to Science, Math, Engineering, etc...[/quote]

I agree with Sisyphus, this is terrible advice.

While there is some history of people changing facilities during Phase 2, every case I've heard of was pre-LMI. Since they took over, the laissez-faire attitude toward "any DoD facility will do" has evaporated. These people are very clearly only interested in making sure you go to work at your designated facility and will yank that chain of repayment at any divergence from that path.

You are of course free to leave your SF if it's abusive, a bad fit, or any other reason you want. They don't have the legal power to force you to work anywhere (although I bet they wish they could). But they do have the power to force repayment which can make thing very stressful financially for someone just starting their career. Consider your options carefully before making any rash decisions.

[quote="SMARTRegret"]Just transfer without their blessing.

As long as you're employed by a federal agency you're fulfilling your end of the contract.

If SMART says anything, tell them they were breaching the contract by having you do work that isn't related to Science, Math, Engineering, etc...[/quote]

I would not listen to that unless you're willing to court extreme danger.

It is literally in the contract that SMART does NOT consider "general DoD employment" as fulfilling your contract; it is at your SF and only at your SF unless specifically and explicitly blessed by them.

Now, it might make a good case when they do come after you for repayment...especially if you're willing to get all loud and public about it...but there's not guarantee that works.

It doesn't really matter what's in the contract on SMART's end; they're the government and you're an indentured servant. Contract law basically doesn't apply to the government in this context.

Just transfer without their blessing.

As long as you're employed by a federal agency you're fulfilling your end of the contract.

If SMART says anything, tell them they were breaching the contract by having you do work that isn't related to Science, Math, Engineering, etc...

I successfully transfered SFs during Phase 1 a few years ago before LMI took over the program. My original SF did not have any research or facilities related to my field of expertise, but I had contacts at a SF that fit my area much better through previous internships before starting SMART.

The key to success was to have both the original SF and the new SF on board with the change. After my first internship at the original SF, it was clear that this was a bad match and they agreed to release me. I contacted the new SF about a transfer and they were agreeable. Only after I had it in writing from both SFS did I contact SMART, who begrudgingly agreed to the transfer.

I'm now in Phase 2 at the new SF and am a lot happier.

To hammer the point home:

SMART views you as their, and your sponsoring SF's, property. You are an indentured servant in their eyes with no rights.

You ***ONLY*** get to jump ship on their terms, which requires your original SF being actively for it most of the time (unless you can demonstrate significant abuse, personal financial or otherwise, on the part of your original SF).

Also SMART has a long track record of NOT liking when its participants get "uppity" about wanting to change facilities, and would be very likely to work against you if you try without essentially preemptive blessing from your SF.

So I can tell you that I tried to request a site transfer based off the fact that I got married and my husband is in the Army. The process was basically that I reached out to my Service Liason and they had to get approval from their boss. That was successful, although I'm not sure it would've been under different conditions. However, my SF then had to also give their approval to release me to another facility, pending the condition that the facility I wanted to transfer to was interested in me. My SF did NOT give their approval so I'm a little stuck right now trying to figure something else out. Basically, both the SMART leadership AND your SF leadership has to be onboard with you transferring for it to go through. It's very unusual.

Can't help you directly but if you search "transfer" in the search bar you'll find pages of threads talking about this.

I need some advice. I had my first internship this summer and it was not what I expected. The position that they are recruiting me for is an admin role, no real engineering involved. This is not what I expected when I signed up for SMART, and it's not what was pitched to me.

I'm torn, because I don't want to break my contract and accrue a ton of debt, but I also don't want to commit to three years of admin work post graduation. What are my options? Is there a way to transfer facilities or departments and, if so, how?

Thank you