I am a second-year geophysics undergraduate looking to apply to the SMART program. I only found out about the program a week ago and have been scrambling to get all the materials together. During a break from working on the application, I happen to stumble upon this forum and frankly, I am appalled at all of the negative feedback to SMART. I've read probably two "not too bad" reviews and one satisfied one... other than that everyone literally seems to hate it.
So back to the subject line: is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experience?? If so, please respond. If not, please say why and which SF!
Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experience
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Larry
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
I'm not a SMART scholar, but there are over 1000+ out there. Folks have had bad experiences and some have shared them here.
In general, I'd say you should apply, and then prior to (potentially) being accepted be ready to say no if you don't like the facility that wants you, and the work they will have you doing.
As an Undergraduate your biggest danger is having your GPA drop to low. Most facilities have viable work for smart, hardworking and self motivated undergrads.
In general, I'd say you should apply, and then prior to (potentially) being accepted be ready to say no if you don't like the facility that wants you, and the work they will have you doing.
As an Undergraduate your biggest danger is having your GPA drop to low. Most facilities have viable work for smart, hardworking and self motivated undergrads.
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
If you apply and a scholarship is offered, I would strongly recommend making the facility hire you for an 3-6 month internship before you sign anything related to accepting the scholarship and the service commitment that comes with it. Larry has suggested similar actions before. The main objective is to see how things *really are at the SF.
I also recommend that you take everything the SF says with a grain of salt - starting salary, budget for equipment, types of work, etc may be one thing when they are trying to woo you, and completely different when you sign on. Just my $0.02. Good luck.
I also recommend that you take everything the SF says with a grain of salt - starting salary, budget for equipment, types of work, etc may be one thing when they are trying to woo you, and completely different when you sign on. Just my $0.02. Good luck.
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Guest again
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
Sorry for the late response, but being that you won't even be notified of your scholarship offer if you win for say 3-4 months, I do hope this will find you in time.
This scholarship for me has literally been my saving grace, everything I actually wanted and it fell into my lap. I got a great SF at the perfect location and I can't wait to start working there. Yes, there have been a few hurdles, it's a new ish program. They have made considerable effort lately when they screwed up. I remember when they tried to pull a doosie on us and not provide us with the internship payments we had literally signed a contract for. Luckily they rescinded that and everyone is grandfathered in to what you were offered your cohort year, so that ended up working out. They have missed our payments in the past, though usually it is because of some random accounting or computer glitch. I think we waited a week or two once to get paid. But since we should be making quarterly payments for taxes, I save enough for those big payments that I can survive that week or two on what I've set aside. When they switch Admins on us, I got burned too because one used to email deadline reminders, and my next one didn't, and I got this threatening email because I forgot to submit something (now it's easy, we used to have something like ten deadlines a year. Now it's just the yearly report and transcripts). But they let me submit it ASAP and I never ended up facing a penalty. My point is yes there's a lot of stuff that happened but for me it has all worked out just fine. A good bit of worrying yes, but really it's all turned out the best way it could have.
I think that stuff is really the small stuff. What makes this for me is that I have a great SF. I very very very strongly suggest if you or anyone is successful in this scholarship that you have them make it perfectly clear to you what you are expected to do. I *think* that after you accept the offer there is still like one more official deadline before they actually start paying you in August where you could turn away (find this out though) I would suggest in that time that you convince your SF to let you work there for a month, three months, whatever you can to see what your phase 2 commitment will be like before you are officially a SMART scholar.
For me, this scholarship has allowed me to do all the things I have wanted both from a career standpoint but also financially getting me through school and at least put some kind of dent in student loans. I was even awarded NSF, and turned it down. This position I will have is the position I wanted. I didn't need NSF when this came with a job after graduation. I know lots of kids struggling to find jobs after graduation right now. I don't even have to worry about an interview.
This scholarship for me has literally been my saving grace, everything I actually wanted and it fell into my lap. I got a great SF at the perfect location and I can't wait to start working there. Yes, there have been a few hurdles, it's a new ish program. They have made considerable effort lately when they screwed up. I remember when they tried to pull a doosie on us and not provide us with the internship payments we had literally signed a contract for. Luckily they rescinded that and everyone is grandfathered in to what you were offered your cohort year, so that ended up working out. They have missed our payments in the past, though usually it is because of some random accounting or computer glitch. I think we waited a week or two once to get paid. But since we should be making quarterly payments for taxes, I save enough for those big payments that I can survive that week or two on what I've set aside. When they switch Admins on us, I got burned too because one used to email deadline reminders, and my next one didn't, and I got this threatening email because I forgot to submit something (now it's easy, we used to have something like ten deadlines a year. Now it's just the yearly report and transcripts). But they let me submit it ASAP and I never ended up facing a penalty. My point is yes there's a lot of stuff that happened but for me it has all worked out just fine. A good bit of worrying yes, but really it's all turned out the best way it could have.
I think that stuff is really the small stuff. What makes this for me is that I have a great SF. I very very very strongly suggest if you or anyone is successful in this scholarship that you have them make it perfectly clear to you what you are expected to do. I *think* that after you accept the offer there is still like one more official deadline before they actually start paying you in August where you could turn away (find this out though) I would suggest in that time that you convince your SF to let you work there for a month, three months, whatever you can to see what your phase 2 commitment will be like before you are officially a SMART scholar.
For me, this scholarship has allowed me to do all the things I have wanted both from a career standpoint but also financially getting me through school and at least put some kind of dent in student loans. I was even awarded NSF, and turned it down. This position I will have is the position I wanted. I didn't need NSF when this came with a job after graduation. I know lots of kids struggling to find jobs after graduation right now. I don't even have to worry about an interview.
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Guest
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
So they no longer pay internship payments to incoming scholars?Guest again wrote:I remember when they tried to pull a doosie on us and not provide us with the internship payments we had literally signed a contract for. Luckily they rescinded that and everyone is grandfathered in to what you were offered your cohort year, so that ended up working out.
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guestagain
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
I honestly have no clue. I think they have lowered the amount a little bit in years following mine but I do not know if they have done away with them altogether. I imagine if they still advertise it, then they probably havent done away with it. BUT if you receive the award they will tell you what your internship stipend amount would be.
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MC_EE
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
I received ISP of $1000/wk this past summer.
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azquick
Re: Is there anyone who is satisfied with their SMART experi
I was part of the 2010 cohort. Graduated and have been working for my SF for 4 years. The SMART program was awesome. The funding I received was more than enough to cover my expenses and to put away some savings for after I graduated. My SF has been awesome. No complaints at all about the SMART experience.