The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Back when I was in the program, I went to Singapore and had no trouble. They got back to me promptly with an approval.

Best of luck, I tried doing this and got an email from my contact's manager informing me that if I didn't like where I had been placed that they could inform me of how much money I owe them and I would be free to go wherever I wanted to go. I'm not saying it's not impossible, but that was what my ex...

Yea, I know how you feel. I passed on my Masters because I'm done with school. I don't need anymore of that type of paperwork. Just give me a PE and I'm good. But like you said, the tasks that they have are not something you would find outside of the DoD. They are all unique and there may be a templ...

How hard was it? Honestly, I got 3 phone interviews with 0 offers out of about 40 applications. The hardest part was trying to put to words what I had done and how it would transfer over to a job with them. I couldn't basically. By the way, about 30 of the 40 jobs I applied for were entry level (col...

Yea, I looked it up and remember having to pay SE. Like the person above me said, it's not too avoidable. Personally, I always found it strange that the government taxes it's own payments. Oh well. Some money is better than no money!

I'm from Mechanical Engineering. 2010 grad. Use your time in school wisely!

Currently working? I'm in the nuclear industry. I work on Hard Environment Qualification for replacement parts in nuclear power plants.

Yea, they did take out the prorating part of the phase II payback, but that is not from the version that I signed to. I got email confirmation that my payback amount would be prorated. I actually just started an engineering job three weeks ago and it's a million times better. I'm still learning the ...

Eh, it's been a while. I couldn't really remember, but thanks for the verification.

Read the whole internet... haha yup, that was exactly what I did for two years at my SF. They did not have the tasks for my skill set anywhere where I worked. BUT i servied my two years and now I actually have an engineer job. One thing the SMART Scholarship taught me was if you want to help the mil...

Hey TTU awardie mean Texas Tech? That's where I went! Congrats!

I think SMART just gives you a 1099 at the end of the year. Which means 15% of what you get goes back as "self-employment" tax. Be prepared, it can hurt.

I left my SF two weeks early. No bill as of yet, but even if I do get a bill... it wont hurt me, it was just two weeks out of a two year commitment. Best of luck in your situation. They might get you for two years out of three though.

So far, I have not been billed for those last two weeks. I'm not holding my breath though. Sorry for the late reply.

I have been working at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD for the past two years and have hated working here because all everything we do here is Computer Science stuff(I'm a Mechanical Engineering Major...so yea). look up AMSAA if you're interested. A good amount of M&S is done at AMSAA.

I'm leaving early by two weeks and other than owing a small amount of cash to SMART, everything is going just like any other employee leaving the job.

Oh yea, been a while since I've logged in to see how things are going. I'm at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, working for AMSAA. Just alot of number crunching and programming going on here.

Thanks for the responses. I talked to my CA this afternoon and she said that to the best of her knowledge, the amount left over will be prorated. And yes, I'm that anxious to get out of this state and get away from this job. I have not liked what I was signed up for from day 1 and I am willing to fi...