The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

After getting accepted into my school's Accelerated Masters (non-thesis) program, I completed both of my SAARs, and now it is just the waiting game. I think the only contact I have received regarding these SAARs since they were accepted for review was an email asking me to acknowledge that I would e...

Okay, I just wanted to post here so people know what ended up happening. I have decided to get my Master's with SMART. The first thing is that I was presented with two options. I could either reapply for the follow-on award (1.5 years or greater), or I could complete both the degree and award length...

I am finishing up my internship and I am thinking about extending my award to include a Master's degree. I will begin my senior year shortly, and my current commitment is 2 years. I was able to find multiple groups within my SF that would offer good employment, and I believe I have made good impress...

I believe that we recieved an email indicating that pass/fail grades on classes that are normally letter-grades would be allowed for this semester.

Your SAT is slightly higher than the average for SMART awardees (1337), though your ACT is a bit lower than the average (~29.5). If you have a good plan for how you can increase your scores, I would retake them to further improve your chances with SMART and colleges. They absolutely look at your pas...

I just got in last year, and I was a freshman as well. I also had a middling GPA in high school (~3.7), but my SAT was stronger like your ACT (1580). You certainly have a fighting chance. Assuming you have been working hard in class, you should be able to get your STEM teachers to write your letters...

Exactly the same thing happened to me. Later got an email indicating that this is supposed to happen every three months. But it scared the heck out of me when I first got the email.

I have no idea how heavily they weight your GPA from high school but it can't be all that bad. I had an unweighted GPA of only 3.7 but an SAT score of 1580. I can't imagine that getting a 4.0 for the fall semester hurt though.

I am having no problems. It does redirect me to https://www.smartscholarship.org/smart, but that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for verifying what I was thinking. Couldn't find the original number that got me worried. However, it was good I checked with them, as they were trying to apply a preexisting scholarship to tuition (which saved SMART money I suppose), rather than allowing it to be used to reduce out-of-pocket...

I have been working with my university to get tuition and fees paid for. However, they cited a number for what they are billing suspiciously close to two semesters worth of tuition. Am I correct in assuming that they should send a bill to SMART every semester? If so, I can get this fixed.

This is basically a repeat of the answer above but look at the work environment very carefully. Make certain that you will be happy working there for several years. Looking for SMART scholars who have already completed their education or have completed at least one internship would be a great step. ...

UNLIMITED POWER! But thank you for the clarification.

First of all: thank you mods/admins for cleaning this up! We all really appreciate what you do to keep this site functional. Second: what do you mean we can all be mods?

I can't be the only one who is appalled by the sheer volume of posts that have literally nothing to do with SMART. These are obviously not valuable to our community, but is there anything we can do about it? People shouldn't have to sift through dozens of posts trying to get you to click links.

Strange that you haven't gotten it yet. I received an email titled "SMART Site Visit Request Processed" which confirmed that I was eligible for the funds, and the money was deposited into my bank account shortly after that. Have you received any such email? If so, double-check the site visit request...

I was told mid-July, nothing more specific than that.

Yes, a big chunk of this is just filled with verification, for you and SMART. They want to check that they have the right info (most of it is pretty simple, like degree and graduation date), but they also want to make sure that you understand what you are signing up for. Mine was ~30 minutes, but ti...

While I am missing the first day of lab tours, I will be there to meet the organization. More importantly, I finally got a phone call with my POC and was able to explain the situation. As one would hope, I am not being held to blame for a canceled flight. Assuming today's flight doesn't have any pro...

Thanks for the quick response. I arranged for travel on my own. While my airline was no help, but I was able to find a flight from another airline that should get have gottne me there on time. That fell apart when all remaining flights out of town were cancelled. Now, I am even deeper in trouble tha...

My site visit is two days, and starts tomorrow. However, a delay in my flight will prevent me from getting there untill about the end of the first day's activities. Appart from sending an email to try and warn them, is there anything I can/should do?

You can send your transcript to smartscholar@smartscholarship.org or

Logistics Management Institute (LMI)
SMART Scholarship Program
1777 NE Loop 410, Suite 808
San Antonio, TX 78217

This took me a while to find myself. It was actually on the checklist in the award cover letter.

Stormfalcon, congrats!

I am really glad to hear that you got in!

I have been working on my education work plan and am uncertain about two things. First, my school has undergraduate students like myself to complete a senior design project. Does this count as a final project under graduation project requirements? In this case, this wouldn't be a dissertation/thesis...

I am in a similar boat, but this is one of the reasons they have site visits. If you go there and don't like what you see, you would be able to decline the award with no penalty. I still suggest listening to other people with actual experience in the SMART program, but I hope that this is at least a...