The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

Hi all,

I am a PhD student applying for the SMART Scholarship. I have not been able to find any info for grad students regarding what it will be like when they are not doing the internship. If you get selected as a scholarship recipient, does your research transition to whatever your SF/internship tasks are focused on? Or do you continue with the projects you and your advisor were already pursuing? Any general information, comments, or resources regarding this aspect of being a SMART Scholar would be appreciated. Everything I have read so far seems to be focused on the industry side of things and not the academia/research side.

Ideally, your SF will acknowledge your current research and assign you a mentor whose research aligns with your current research. I don't know if there is an instance where they would not align your research with a specific mentor, causing you to not be doing work toward your PhD research during the summers. In my experience and the other PhD students who were at my SF, the SF research was perfectly aligned to the PhD research so that the summers helped toward the PhD. During the school year, you just continue with your own research as well. When you talk to a potential SF (if you do), just make sure you are very clear on what your research is and making sure accepting the scholarship would help your research, not hinder it.

Your graduate research does not have to align with your SF research area. However, they may be less inclined to select you as a scholar.

My SF doesn't touch my research in any way. I continued the project I was working on at the time I accepted the scholarship.