The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Hi to everyone, I was selected to be a part of a service and was only offered a furloughed job at the time of graduation (2013 graduate with 1 year service). I turned down the job, and went to a private company for a year. In June of this year, I accepted a job with another federal agency that parti...

Hello All, I know that some of you are in the same boat I am. Whether it's withdrawing during Phase I due a furloughed offer upon your due date for graduation or withdrawing from Phase II for various reasons. I have read on here that a handbook/newsletter (not really sure because I haven't received ...

Just wanted to update everyone that I did receive another letter about my withdrawal. "Instructions for refunding to the United States an appropriate amount as determined by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Section 2192a, Title 10) will be provided to you at a later date." Anyone that withdr...

Just wanted to update everyone that I did receive another letter about my withdrawal. "Instructions for refunding to the United States an appropriate amount as determined by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Section 2192a, Title 10) will be provided to you at a later date." Anyone that withdre...

Just wanted to update everyone, SMART recently accepted my withdrawal form. I could not wait until after graduation to apply for an offer from the SF so I withdrew from the program. I will keep everyone up to date if I hear anything further from the program on any front. Any word on them sending yo...

Just wanted to update everyone,

SMART recently accepted my withdrawal form. I could not wait until after graduation to apply for an offer from the SF so I withdrew from the program. I will keep everyone up to date if I hear anything further from the program on any front.

Does anyone know if when SMART finds out an alternative job has been accepted, if they stop your payments/tuition as soon as this is found out?

I know of 2 scholars who have heard back from SFs (rather not say which ones just to protect identities) and they were told by their POCs that while they think they will be able to offer their SMART scholars jobs, SMART has taken a back seat to more important things and that it will be at least anot...

I am a 2012 Cohort and would be beginning phase II shortly.

Our contract says we will be offered full time employment.

So I've been trying to obtain a copy of my SF's MOU (the one that we have on site expired 2010) or some other document that outlines what that SF's responsible are to participants. I know what my responsibilities because I have my service agreement on hand. What I'm trying to establish is: Does the...

Has anyone at all that's graduating in May/June began any process yet? I was told by my SF that I would hear something very soon and that was 2 weeks ago. Just wondering if anyone has heard anything positive or negative.

I know this is very future thinking, but if awards are not announced until summer, will orientation still be in July? This is a concern since I will be in Ghana and wouldn't be able to attend This year there was not an orientation. It was a half hour phone call with someone from the program to repl...

Just received an email that says we are supposed to get the rest of January and all of February on Friday (from the ASEE office) ... let's hope this "are scheduled to be" is different than the "is anticipated to be" that we received 4 weeks ago ... and then again 2 weeks ago ...

I'm graduating in May, I contacted my POC at my SF today about been hired in May and this was my POC's response At this time we're in a complete hiring freeze, to include those in the SMART program, so we're waiting on further guidance before proceeding with bringing you on board permanently after ...

Unless fired due to a RIF, you are obligated to go to your SF and work. They can, by law, consider you full time with up to 22 forced days off in a calenar year (aka 80% pay for 22 weeks). Also, they don't have to hire you for up to 2 years before you get released. So if you don't get an offer this...

@concerned_SMART, The furlough will affect you if it is in affect when they bring you on board. Furloughs are conected to sequestration; no sequestration, no furloughs. I understand that. I am wondering if there is any way that the furloughs would allow for a SF to acknowledge that aren't prepared ...

T-minus 5 days until February payment is due and they haven't even finished January. I wonder how this will go ...

Does anyone know how furloughs might effect us? I have not been able to get a straight answer from either the CA or the SF as to whether or not a furlough would be able to get us released from the requirement. If this program was meant to show us what it's like to work for the federal government, th...

It looks like my SF has finally gotten word from the hiring managers that they will be able to squeeze the SMART students through despite any hiring freeze that might be in order. He said that it ended up being a matter of working with more people outside of the SF as well so it looks like it will b...

Correction to the previous message: I think some facilities just put them through like normal hires because they may not be aware, may not understand if they have their first SMART scholar. Another possibility, they do not have the mechanism in place to hire SMART scholars under any route other tha...

Hi everyone, I thought I would start a thread dedicated to anyone who is graduating in the May/June time frame and their saga associated with getting hired during these harsh times. I have been told by my SF that the hiring freeze is fully in place and that with furloughs being discussed, there isn'...