The Unofficial SMART Scholarship Forum

If I fail my defense, is it possible to ask for a leave of absence so I can attempt a second defense later this year? It's obviously too late to ask for an extension on funding, but I'd hate for the SMART program to declare me in default on my obligations to finish my degree, and then finish my PhD later this year.

IMO it means your committee failed you. You shouldn't be allowed to schedule a defense you aren't set to pass. If you have a date set, and your advisor isn't a psycho, I wouldn't worry too much. But should the worse come to pass, yes, you can ask for an extension. SMART may grant it or may put you in something of a hold status where they stop paying for your but still provide you the opportunity to finish school and then resume the program by beginning your service agreement. I can't tell the future, but I certainly hope they wouldn't immediately declare you non-compliant. SMART has had a rough history, but it does seem like they've gotten a bit better in recent years.

3 Options are possible:

- You can extend without issue and potentially get funding for it (if they're still even doing degree length extensions that are paid - who knows LMI might have put the kibosh on that). At least if this is your first extension.

- You can go on Leave of Absence to finish on your own time and dollar.

- They will summarily yeet you from the program without giving so much as a single shit because SMART has always seemed to think, and still does, that PhDs are supposed to be as deterministic as a Bachelor's degree...LMI especially.

The only way to figure that out is to roll the dice and see. Hopefully you don't have to.