The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

I am currently an undergraduate. I will be graduating in May and I recieved the SMART award for a Masters program. How should I be filling out the Draft EWP? Should it be information about the completion of my undergraduate degree? The form is due by the 15th, and while I plan to select which Masters program I will be attending by that date, it is unlikely that I will have any idea of my academic plan for that program before April 15.

Also, on the Declaration for Federal Employment form are we considered Applicants or Appointee's?


Finally, my main question is this. Has anybody found a set of FAQ pages for these forms? I know we can contact SMART with any questions about the forms that we have, but I would prefer to take care of as much without their assistance as possible because I know they will be incredibly busy and will likely be receiving a lot of questions during this time period.

Are you sure there is not a sample degree plan in your course catalog? You should fill out the EWP for the degree that you were awarded the scholarship for.

You're an applicant.

There is no such FAQ . Maybe we could make this thread one.

Has anyone received their snail-mail notifications?

On the Award notification and service agreement form it asks for the ORIGINAL form.
If the award notification was included in the snail-mail package, is that what they mean by ORIGINAL?,
because I printed out the Award notification papers and started filling those out by hand.

Or

by original do they mean the papers that one physically fills out and signs (not a photocopy)?

Original = not photocopy. Just fill out everything in dark ink and send it in. Also the EWP is just a draft they want to "see" you're on track for completion when you said. There is room to wiggle.

I'd like to second the question "on the Declaration for Federal Employment form are we considered Applicants or Appointee's?"

Appointees. You are definitely going to go in the system if you accept this award, or at least that's the idea. Although don't bother writing SMART at this point. They are really busy. I have an important question about my award put in Friday that I've yet to hear back for.

So now we have conflicting information:

Chris said- Applicant
Awardee said-Appointee

Same as last year, it's applicant. You're hired through the normal hiring channels. The only difference is that you have a non-binding contract from someone saying that they'll hire you.

Hey, so my award is only for one year, even though on my application I said 2013, and during my interview the rep said she changed my records from 1 year to 3 years, I still got an award for one year saying I'll graduate in 2011. This is a bit confusing because I am technically a Junior because of all the credits I came into school with, but this is my first year at the University and I will be here for a complete 4 years. I've emailed SMART about this twice, but haven't heard a response... what should I do?

Tina wrote:Hey, so my award is only for one year, even though on my application I said 2013, and during my interview the rep said she changed my records from 1 year to 3 years, I still got an award for one year saying I'll graduate in 2011. This is a bit confusing because I am technically a Junior because of all the credits I came into school with, but this is my first year at the University and I will be here for a complete 4 years. I've emailed SMART about this twice, but haven't heard a response... what should I do?

The SMART acceptance package has a box for saying the info is incorrect. I'd just mark it for now and if they don't get back to you soon enough just send it in like that. The award doesn't come with consequences until orientation so it's better drop it then rather than lose it now because they can't get back to you.

What was the final verdict on the "have you discussed a project aligned with your SF" question? Are we required to do our final project with the SF? I am in my third out of five years and do have to do a senior project, but that is still a few years away.

guest wrote:

Tina wrote:Hey, so my award is only for one year, even though on my application I said 2013, and during my interview the rep said she changed my records from 1 year to 3 years, I still got an award for one year saying I'll graduate in 2011. This is a bit confusing because I am technically a Junior because of all the credits I came into school with, but this is my first year at the University and I will be here for a complete 4 years. I've emailed SMART about this twice, but haven't heard a response... what should I do?

The SMART acceptance package has a box for saying the info is incorrect. I'd just mark it for now and if they don't get back to you soon enough just send it in like that. The award doesn't come with consequences until orientation so it's better drop it then rather than lose it now because they can't get back to you.

I had a similar issue with mine where I must have gotten confused and messed up my original application and wrote that I am applying for a 2 year undergraduate scholarship when I intended to apply for a 2 year graduate scholarship. I also had told the rep the correction that I was applying for a 2 year graduate scholarship and she said she would change it and I was awarded a 2 year undergraduate scholarship. I emailed SMART on Friday as soon as I had gotten the award. I also emailed the point of contact person at my facility at the same time explaining the issue, and I received an email yesterday with the corrected award. so I would suggest emailing them (it also says right below those three boxes that you should contact SMART right away if there is information that is incorrect) requesting to change it

Official from SPO we are applicants not appointees.

Ok, Chris, the form says I have until July 1st to pick the graduate school that I am going to attend. I am still attempting to sort out which of the programs that I have been accepted to will be more beneficial to both myself and to my Sponsoring Facility through discussion with my contact at the SF and without selecting a school it is impossible for me to know what courses I will be taking (or to even have a rough guess at this time). I contacted SMART and I am awaiting reply, but do you know what should I probably do about the Draft EWP?

CompSciMasters5440 wrote:Ok, Chris, the form says I have until July 1st to pick the graduate school that I am going to attend. I am still attempting to sort out which of the programs that I have been accepted to will be more beneficial to both myself and to my Sponsoring Facility through discussion with my contact at the SF and without selecting a school it is impossible for me to know what courses I will be taking (or to even have a rough guess at this time). I contacted SMART and I am awaiting reply, but do you know what should I probably do about the Draft EWP?

Wait for them to respond. It's really not going to be that big of an issue. You have to remember that there are <10 people managing the entire SMART program, and even fewer actually responding to questions