The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I will just make a note to evaluate why you want to leave the PhD. If it is just getting messy, you can ask for an extension, which your SF gets main say on approving. If you are spending too much time with work, check on programs available. We offer over a year of paid time off to focus on research...

Howdy, so I am currently completing my summer internship. I am graduating in December with a bachelor's in Electrical Engineering. At my current SF there are no open positions for me to start in once I've graduated. Ive had conversations with my POC here at the the SF and we've agreed that there is...

Timelines vary. Generally SMART starts in August and connected me to clearance forms September. As part of that, they will ask for FBI finger printing. If you are on a study abroad, get in touch with SMART and reach out to a local embassy. This happened to me, there was -1- person in all of Japan ab...

Your clearance investigation is looking for whether you are compromised or could be. Are you ashamed of it enough that someone could blackmail you on the information? Doesn't seem like it. You absolutely need to stop though, the best time to stop was when you applied, the next best time would be now...

Sort of. So, take this with a grain of salt as I have not done it yet and have not been told it would be an issue. So part of this is permission by omission. The DoD has a an exchange program called the Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program (ESEP). Allied countries put in requests and you can ask ...

Have you received your clearance? Sometimes your clearance takes an astronomically long time, it took me 3 years. I was graduated several months before I was notified it went through. I graduated in December, was called about it being done in June, emails and offer letters in July, and had orientati...

So the obvious note for this topic is: The research is likely classified. If you mention what kind of things you like to do, maybe someone can suggest a facility dealing in something of that nature, though specifics is a no go. My facility had a wikipedia entry with some of its labs, that was my res...

They have you on a contract and none of it counts as a student loan. So I do not expect they will even remotely try to negotiate, they already have the edge and want to discourage dropping.

Did you check that your facility uses the GS scale? I do not know the Bachelors pay on GS. I started at 61000, that is with locality pay of over 20%. This is no experience. I am on labdemo pay scale though.

Actually I agree with the above poster.

If they accepted you for a PhD, then the Masters is not when you complete the contract.

Hi! From the SMART handbook 5.11. Follow-on Funding SMART scholarships are awarded for a one-degree program at a time . Should the scholar desire to seek an additional degree award, the scholar would apply for the follow-on funding as a new award , with no guarantee of an award. Follow-on awards are...

Just a reminder that it is not all that rare to be told to take classes instead. Clearances have been taking ages in some cases and refusing interim. My clearance took 3 years, I started work 8 months after graduation. So be prepared, especially when many offices are less staffed, to keep taking cla...

Some of the SFs are kind of... a source of trouble. I am not here about lawsuits or such, I am happy with my job. That said, they offered more than the GS7 scale goes to as a start, laid out my first auto raise, and scheduled promotion (in DB scale) from 2 to 3. I essentially increase salary by 30% ...

My group got a payment from SMART our first month, but we started 8/17, so 8/19 was stipend. We did not start at month start.

To be on the safe side, I would email SMART. If we give you the wrong answer, you could be in trouble. SMART, to my knowledge, only says not to work over 16 hours a week. Unemployment is state, not federal last I knew, the federal money from CARES is given to states still. Your student loans, if not...

It will depend on the facility. In my resume I noted things like proficiency with lua scripting and I was asked about that in the phone interviews. How i used it, how flexible I found it, etc. They did not just read the entire resume, they used parts of it to relate to other skills. For example, "In...

To add on to what he said, you do not hear nearly enough from the people it benefited because they are 1) Working potentially, so more busy. 2) Not as motivated as people who are having a bad time. You don't usually talk about a good experience at a restaurant unless it was amazing. You will complai...

I started phase 2, and some feedback to think about for you. According to the SMART coordinator for the facility, you being accepted is not just a lab saying "we will use them", it is a specific team leader potentially signing off. Your lab is fronting you as a cost, so larger facilities may have mo...

If GS scale you start at 7 due to superior academic achievement. your exact step is negotiable.

On Labdemo you start at a number that tends to be higher. Bachelor's with some experience was 65k$ start. Raise at 6 and 18 months.

I was finally told I would be contacted with a job offer. It took a few weeks from that point to get a phone call for a verbal offer (on a Friday). The Monday after they gave me a tentative offer. I have been waiting over a week after accepting that to get the next set of paperwork. Things move brut...

Happy it helped!

If you work over 16 hours you lose the stipend. You can work another job within the limit. Even graduating you are limited hours.

All my internships were waived and I was told to take classes due to lack of interim clearance. I was in a study abroad when I did my clearance application and 5 months later I received an email that OPM could not find me. I responded I was in Japan for awhile but hear nothing after that. I was call...

Hi! I just wanted to have a topic about clearances out there. I Joined SMART in the 201 6 cohort or so. I finished my clearance application September of 2017. I was just informed today it was approved, I've been refused interim clearances in the meantime. No references or myself were contacted befor...

I submitted the form each time in advance.