The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I am looking for someone who has entered phase 2 and finished their negotiations.

What could you negotiate?
Did they seem receptive?
What degree level did you get?

I am basically wondering what I can look at negotiating and what I can't.

Aside from start date there was no negotiation at my SF sadly. Good luck!

You don't "negotiate" coming in.

Barring a facility operating very differently from the norm, you come in at the GS pay level standard per your education with the corresponding salary + cost of living locality pay and that's it.

Sisyphus wrote:You don't "negotiate" coming in.

Barring a facility operating very differently from the norm, you come in at the GS pay level standard per your education with the corresponding salary + cost of living locality pay and that's it.

They didn't talk about student loan repayment, continuing education, rate of step changes, or anything else? Did they give an offer letter or just tell you what the job was? Lack of at least an attempt to use longer term service agreements is unexpected.

malarious wrote: They didn't talk about student loan repayment, continuing education, rate of step changes, or anything else? Did they give an offer letter or just tell you what the job was? Lack of at least an attempt to use longer term service agreements is unexpected.

They'll tell you about all the other information/programs/etc. that are available to you as an employee just like they're available to everyone else, but what I'm saying is that you won't get to "negotiate" any of it (which is the term you used). If you're coming in on the GS system literally all of that is locked down and you either get to take it or leave it (and invoke the wrath of SMART if you leave it). You have no leverage and they know it.

At least one participant actually had her pay ***lowered*** coming back in from SMART because they knew they could take advantage of SMART participants being debt trapped and try to screw them over.

Sisyphus wrote:

malarious wrote: They didn't talk about student loan repayment, continuing education, rate of step changes, or anything else? Did they give an offer letter or just tell you what the job was? Lack of at least an attempt to use longer term service agreements is unexpected.

They'll tell you about all the other information/programs/etc. that are available to you as an employee just like they're available to everyone else, but what I'm saying is that you won't get to "negotiate" any of it (which is the term you used). If you're coming in on the GS system literally all of that is locked down and you either get to take it or leave it (and invoke the wrath of SMART if you leave it). You have no leverage and they know it.

At least one participant actually had her pay ***lowered*** coming back in from SMART because they knew they could take advantage of SMART participants being debt trapped and try to screw them over.

Oh, I was told that student loan repayment, recruitment bonuses, and some of the other benefits were often tied to service agreements. So assumed they were something you negotiated, "Hey I will do 6 years if you do X in loan repayment for year", or something like that. Same for the other benefits. Your continuing education stuff said 1 year when I talked to the SF contact, but someone from the same facility said you can negotiate getting class assistance earlier if you do it from the get go.

Hoping that hearing these things means they are more open to having some form of negotiation. I'd love to get things in writing and guarantee a longer employment potentially.