August deposit

[Guest]

Getting really hungry... no payment yet. Been living on seeds (don't ask) and tap water for a week now.

[Guest]

Getting really hungry... no payment yet. Been living on seeds (don't ask) and tap water for a week now.

Clearly, this scholarship is for the birds.

[Guest]

Only 32 cents left in bank account. Credit card was rejected at Costco last time I went. Haven't seen my pet cat Fluffles in 4 days, my pet dog Barkles has been acting kind of funny lately, and started to look at me like he usually does at a piece of steak, and Fluffles.

[Guest1234]

Yeah, the deposit has not hit my account yet either. I called my bank and they have not even received notification from SMART or ASEE or anybody that a deposit is supposed to happen today. Apparently this notification goes out about 24 hrs before the deposit. I am starting to get a little pissed.

[Guest]

The thing is, we just came from their BS internship, where we usually spend more money on another place to rent wherever our particular internship is... so a lot of us are really dependent on this deposit. It's very unprofessional of them... This does not happen in the private sector... and if you have your PhD in STEM you can easily get $150k+/year... as compared to the measly ~70k/year at DoD... If they want to recruit the best, they should probably try to ensure screw-ups like this don't happen, since most of us have a lot of options, and a lot of recruitment offers.

[Guest1234]

Has anyone been able to get through to the SMART office yet? I call and it just rings.....

[pn_junction]

I'm new to the program and I lost my patience with these delays about a week ago. Like what has already been said, people are counting on these payments to live, and quite frankly, while I think I have a great opportunity through this program (after a thorough investigation of my sponsoring facility), I'll have plenty of opportunities elsewhere. If this is representative of how we are going to be treated in this program and the DoD, I want nothing to do with it. If they want to bring in the best people, they need to get their act together at the very least not to even mention compensate competitively.

People who have been in the program for a couple of years, has anything like this ever happened before?

I have my withdrawal form filled out, they have about 5 hours and if that money isn't in my account, it's going to be serious decision time.

[Guest]

@ pn_junction

I've been in the program for three years ... this has happened three times in that span.

[Guest]

I'm reaching out to my senators very soon. Please let me know if anyone has heard back from SPO today. It would be completely deplorable if they don't tell us anything today.

[Guest1234]

Anyone have the number for the SMART office in Monterey CA?

[Guest]

831-333-3000

[pn_junction]

Well depending, I may or may not still be in the program by the end of today. But either way, I have a strong recommendation for everyone in the smart scholarship program, although I'm not sure how we would go about this.

I propose that we start lobbying for an abusive practices clause to put into the smart scholarship handbook.

Essentially what this would state is that if a student can demonstrate that any sort of abusive, manipulative or negligent practices have occurred within either the smart scholarship program in general or within their assigned sponsoring facility, they can withdraw from the program without having to repay any debt.

Practices such as this would include payment delays due to improper handling of administration duties, bait a switch tactics at sponsoring facilities, any sort of coercive behavior, etc. etc.

I think this would provide an excellent source of protection for students and also help to keep the smart program administrators and sponsoring facilities on their toes.

If anyone has any kind of idea of how this could be gone about, please post. If you have any other ideas about it, also please post.

[Guest1234]

1-831-333-3000 is a non-working number. Has anyone else called or been able to get through to them?

[Guest]

1-831-333-3000 is a non-working number. Has anyone else called or been able to get through to them?

My old CA was that number but it ended in 8. I do not know my new CAs number, but assume 3008 is still someone there.

[Guest]

The phone number: 831-333-3008 is a working number.

I just called, and the woman on the other line told me that the only information that she has is that we were paid and that the deposits were made... I explained to her that we have not received our deposits... she responded by saying, that's the only information she has and that she is sorry.

[Guest]

My CA told me pretty much the same thing.

[Guest1234]

At least you can contact your CA. I can not get in touch with my CA.

[Guest1234]

Has this affected all SMART scholars or just a few of us? Any ideas?

[Guest]

We could email everyone and ask.

[Guest]

I think if a large number of folks got paid, one of them would have posted it here. I estimate there are about 300 of us. I think most of us know about the forum.

[Fingers-Crossed]

Same boat here... No money and no word. For those living "on seeds and water" are you able to get student loans to hold you over? I support a family with my stipend I can't handle any delays especially in August following the extra expenses of the internship (you'd think $1000/week extra would be plenty but it goes quickly for those of us that have to keep two households and are far from the SF), have to pay the student fees and insurance which are NOT covered directly, the outrageous parking fees school charge, books, etc. that ALL come in August.

So, I just took a student loan to hold me over until they get their act together.

Sorry I don't have any additional helpful info but wanted to let you know that tho may be an option and no you're not the only ones affected.

[Guest]

If the payments were processed today, I would not expect them to be processed as "same day" transactions (which are very expensive) and so I would not expect to see the credit in the receiving bank accounts until at least Tuesday, 09/02. Did anyone get a "real" confirmation that the payments were processed?

[Guest]

Been checking my bank account and award page literally ALL DAY. My payment showed up on the award page just now, so hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

[Guest]

Can see my payment in my account but it appears it will not clear until Tuesday.

[jjm390]

My money was deposited in my bank last night.