The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I'm requesting an extension to my scholarship of one semester. On the SMART website it says "participants who fail to comply with the degree completion and conferral time lines on their application will be required to provide an increased ratio of post-graduation service to length of award." Does anyone know what that means? I've heard that the extra time has to be paid back double, but I've also heard they tried to make someone pay back their entire commitment time double.

I've always heard that it was double time for the extension...and I've been around a while. Pretty sure it follows the normal conversion of 1 semester = 6 months. So you would owe a year.

Hi guest2,
How's your request increase going? I also need to apply for one but I didn't realize that they switch the contract and had a new point of contact until today, so I had been reaching out to the wrong people. Have they responded to you at all regarding your request?

I just want to say that I requested a few extra months and they didn't have any problems with it. They extended the length of the commitment only by the exact number of months for which I received additional funding.

I will be applying to the 5 year BS/MS program and I plan to reapply for SMART for this program (They are currently funding my BS). If they do accept me, I am not sure if I will be able to finish my thesis on time because I have heard that most people may need an extra semester at my university. I was wondering how I would apply for an extension? And what forms I should fill out and send to SMART if I need an extension in the future? What time would I usually have to notify SMART that I need an extension?

I'm just looking into the future, I know I might be able to finish my graduate work on time, but I just want to be prepared for anything.

mayneedextension wrote:I will be applying to the 5 year BS/MS program and I plan to reapply for SMART for this program (They are currently funding my BS). If they do accept me, I am not sure if I will be able to finish my thesis on time because I have heard that most people may need an extra semester at my university. I was wondering how I would apply for an extension? And what forms I should fill out and send to SMART if I need an extension in the future? What time would I usually have to notify SMART that I need an extension?

I'm just looking into the future, I know I might be able to finish my graduate work on time, but I just want to be prepared for anything.

Changing your degree completion and degree conferral dates is not too painful. They just require that if you are requesting an increase in your award length, that you submit the paperwork no later than 150 days before your original degree completion date. On the other hand, if you request a decrease in award length, you must do so no later than 150 days before the new degree completion date.

In terms of the paperwork, you submit a service amendment agreement request (SAAR), a letter from your adviser acknowledging the change in award length, a personal letter stating your circumstances for requesting a change in award length, and a revised degree completion plan which outlines what you need to do in order to graduate within the new time line.

Sparty wrote:

mayneedextension wrote:I will be applying to the 5 year BS/MS program and I plan to reapply for SMART for this program (They are currently funding my BS). If they do accept me, I am not sure if I will be able to finish my thesis on time because I have heard that most people may need an extra semester at my university. I was wondering how I would apply for an extension? And what forms I should fill out and send to SMART if I need an extension in the future? What time would I usually have to notify SMART that I need an extension?

I'm just looking into the future, I know I might be able to finish my graduate work on time, but I just want to be prepared for anything.

Changing your degree completion and degree conferral dates is not too painful. They just require that if you are requesting an increase in your award length, that you submit the paperwork no later than 150 days before your original degree completion date. On the other hand, if you request a decrease in award length, you must do so no later than 150 days before the new degree completion date.

In terms of the paperwork, you submit a service amendment agreement request (SAAR), a letter from your adviser acknowledging the change in award length, a personal letter stating your circumstances for requesting a change in award length, and a revised degree completion plan which outlines what you need to do in order to graduate within the new time line.

Thank you for the information. I was also wondering if it is difficult to convince SMART to give you an extension? I'm hoping they are lenient since research for thesis (MS and Ph.D -based) does take a long time.

mayneedextension wrote:

Sparty wrote:

mayneedextension wrote:I will be applying to the 5 year BS/MS program and I plan to reapply for SMART for this program (They are currently funding my BS). If they do accept me, I am not sure if I will be able to finish my thesis on time because I have heard that most people may need an extra semester at my university. I was wondering how I would apply for an extension? And what forms I should fill out and send to SMART if I need an extension in the future? What time would I usually have to notify SMART that I need an extension?

I'm just looking into the future, I know I might be able to finish my graduate work on time, but I just want to be prepared for anything.

Changing your degree completion and degree conferral dates is not too painful. They just require that if you are requesting an increase in your award length, that you submit the paperwork no later than 150 days before your original degree completion date. On the other hand, if you request a decrease in award length, you must do so no later than 150 days before the new degree completion date.

In terms of the paperwork, you submit a service amendment agreement request (SAAR), a letter from your adviser acknowledging the change in award length, a personal letter stating your circumstances for requesting a change in award length, and a revised degree completion plan which outlines what you need to do in order to graduate within the new time line.

Thank you for the information. I was also wondering if it is difficult to convince SMART to give you an extension? I'm hoping they are lenient since research for thesis (MS and Ph.D -based) does take a long time.

That is difficult to answer, and I'm sure it varies by case.

Hi! I had to request an award length change for my PhD (obviously a research-based program). While they put the legal right to double your commitment time to 2:1 into their contract paperwork, at least for me they were extremely flexible and processed the change without changing that ratio at all. I owed additional time at a 1:1 for the amount of additional funding they gave me, but I think that was fair. I got the impression that they are fairly understanding that research-based programs do not come with a guaranteed duration/graduation date.

In addition, when I expressed concern to my advisor about their ability to double my committment time he laughed so hysterically he literally started crying and then loudly declared "yeah I'd love to see them try to defend that one in court," meaning he thinks it's not a legally defensible contract clause given the inherently uncertain nature of those programs. I don't know if I'd personally want to be the case study, but I thought that was an interesting point.