The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I can't speak for PhD's, but at my SF a BS would start off at a GS-7. If you were an EE, you would go up to a GS-9 in 6 months, but CS majors (like myself) had to wait a year for the GS-9 increase. Don't ask me why, but the Air Force has a total hard-on for EE's (no offence, I have some great friend...

Seems unlikely that it would go in on MLK day but you never know. I guess some people have already received theirs so I would think that the latest would be Tuesday. Good luck!

Larry, I will admit, this conversation has rattled me. These students are doing everything they can to remain in phase 1 and keep their academics in good standing. When they're done, they will go to work for an SF that will pay them a fraction of what they could make elsewhere. It's not a joke. The ...

OH! I'm sorry. I didn't realize that SMART is unaffiliated with ASEE. Clearly that absolves SMART of any negative consequences that these scholars might experience due to the late stipend payment. It's really weird that the website is smart.asee.org. But clearly SMART and ASEE have nothing to do wit...

Larry, I know SMART doesn't own a bank. To spell it out for you, I was saying that "the bank" is the SMART program's scapegoat. Clearly, no bank has anything to do with the delay. I'm not waiting on payment. I'm in phase 2. I want to see these phase 1 scholars paid, and I seem to be the only one tak...

Larry, I like you. I hope you know that. But your last post is a perfect example of how great government employees are at polishing a turd.

I'm sorry - which bank is that? Is that the same bank that caused all of the other delays over the past few years? It's funny. I've been receiving direct-deposit paychecks for 18 years. The bank never failed. Not once, until I started working with the government. But yeah, thanks to SMART's quick th...

Dear SMART Participants, Thank you to those who contacted the SMART Program Office through the official email address to raise concern about the January stipend payment. January stipend payments will be issued through a different capacity this month. Payments will be processed via wire transfers. A...

Wow. Nothing says "legitimate transaction" like a wire transfer. Are you sure you don't want to go with Bitcoin or PayPal? Why don't you just issue the stipend in small, unmarked, non-sequential bills in a brown paper bag?

Stay classy, SMART.

I really wish I had some advice for you. This is the way it goes, and it doesn't change in phase 2. People mess up, and you're the one that suffers for it. I can assure you, you won't get any kind of incentive for your trouble, or an apology, or even an acknowledgement that a mistake was made. You'r...

Sorry to hear this is happening to you guys again. I dealt with it myself several times in phase 1. I really hope they get it resolved quickly. I once had to wait for more than a month. I thought I was going to have to sell my books and drop my classes to get a refund just to be able to feed my kids...

@MC_EE not to discount your opinion, but phase 1 is great for most people. I really hope phase 2 goes off without a hitch for you. Others have not been so lucky.

You'll have to forgive me, because I'm not sure if NRL is a single SF or if all Navy SFs fall under NRL. I don't work for the Navy. The h-index is one metric. I'm less likely to be swayed by that than what I have seen first-hand. That said, I'm aware that NRL has made significant contributions to a ...

Personally, I understand why people would be hesitant to give up their SF. Even after leaving the job, I probably wouldn't want to make it obvious where I worked. Anyway, instead of listing the multitude of SF's that make SMART scholars spend their commitment updating spreadsheets and sweeping floor...

Everyone knows a bill is going to show up eventually. Nobody knows what that bill is going to look like, and that's the problem. The documentation isn't clear about this issue at all. from the SMART participant handbook, Section 17.6: Participants who have completed a portion of their Service Commit...

Has anybody received a bill yet? I spoke to my CA two weeks ago who said that SMART would be sending out the bills to the students. Yeah, they've been saying that for a while now. If they come up with a reasonable repayment plan, a LOT of people in phase 2 will leave immediately-- and they know it....

Along the lines of OnlyJust's suggestion, I think the SMART program should reduce the remaining service commitment for Phase 2 scholars by a percentage equal to the percentage of time they have served (i.e., 75% of commitment completed => reduce the remaining 25% by 75%). Obviously for anything lik...

I spoke at length to the SMART Program Manager about the process going forward. New SMART Scholars will see a different front end process because of your comments. Hi Larry, I know one of your main missions is to make changes to improve the program for future scholars. Like I told you last night, I...

OK this is just preliminary, but I've started a group for Phase 2 and 3 SMARTs to discuss these issues. Please email me at smartscholars2014 at gmail if you are interested in joining, and I will send you an invite. I encourage anyone who has experienced ongoing issues with the SMART program to email...