Extending to a Graduate Degree

[Smithsonian]

I just recently had the idea to extend my award to include a graduate degree. I get my undergrad this December. I would want to apply to a different school for my graduate degree. I was wondering if anyone has does something like this and knows if it's possible and what I would need to do. I wouldn't start my graduate degree until Fall 2022, would I still be paid from Dec 2021-aug 2022?

[Sisyphus]

This is less of a SMART thing (though I'd never advise to keep burying the whole deeper in case things go wrong, but you do you), then more of a grad school thing:

For engineering, if you KNOW you have a specialty you want to pursue and you can be in and out in a year with an MS...ok fine it's not a terrible idea. If it would take you 2 years, you're honestly at best breaking even (you'll learn MUCH more in terms of marketable, bump-up-your-pay-in-the-future skills from 2 years of work to get you started than an MS with no work [at least in the private sector - if your SF is shit at developing talent ignore this point]).

Honestly, if you want to do ENGINEER shit, grad school is overrated. And it can always wait.

If you're wanting to extend for a PhD...just fucking don't. Both because it's a PhD and SMART with a PhD has the highest chance of ending in disaster. Go out, earn some money and get some real world experience and revisit in a few years; your priorities might change, and if it WOULD help your career you'll probably have better options to pay for your education than SMART (be it an SF where you feel secure, private employer subsidizing, etc.).

[human234895]

Follow-on funding is outlined in section 3.1 of the handbook but the short of it is that you can't "extend," you have to apply.