National SMART Grant

The enactment of the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA) created the National Science and Mathematics Access To Retain Talent Grant (SMART) effective with the 2006-07 Award Year.  The SMART Grant program operated during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 Award Years according to U. S. Department of Education regulations published on July 3, 2006, and November 1, 2006. Otherwise eligible students may receive up to the maximum $4,000 National SMART Grant Scheduled Award for each of their third and fourth academic years of undergraduate study.

For the Fall 2008 Semester, the SMART Grant program will be governed by regulations published October 29. 2007.   Effective the Spring Semester 2009 the SMART Grant will be governed by statutory changes made to the program by the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 (ECASLA), and yet to be published regulations.

Due to the very significant program changes effective Fall 2008 and the additional changes to the program's student eligibility criteria effective with the Spring 2009 Semester, we were unable to include the SMART Grant in our automated awarding process for the 2008-09 Award Year.  Our goal is to begin identifying and manually awarding the Fall 2008 SMART Grant to eligible students near the end of August and early September 2008.  Our goal for Spring 2009 is to begin identifying and awarding Spring SMART Grant to eligible students during the latter part of the Fall term. The following information outlines the SMART Grant student eligibility criteria applicable solely to the Fall 2008 semester. 

Students who have earned a minimum of 60 semester hours, but fewer than 90 semester hours and have completed the requisite number of weeks of instructional time as defined in the federal reguations are considered to be in their third year of undergraduate study.

Students who have earned a minimum of 90 semester hours, but fewer than 120 semester hours and have completed the requisite number of weeks of instructional time as defined in the federal reguations are considered to be in their fourth year of undergraduate study.

To be eligible, a student:

1. Must be a U.S. Citizen (students classified as Permanent Residents or any other non-citizen status are not eligible);
2. Must receive a Federal Pell Grant during the award year;
3. Must major in physical, life or computer science, engineering, mathematics, technology, or a critical foreign language. The U. S. Department of Education has identified the eligible major fields of study by CIP (Classification of Instructional Program) code;
4. Must be enrolled in the third or fourth academic year of his or her program of study as stated earlier;
5. Must be enrolled full-time in an eligible undergraduate degree program AND at least one of the courses must be specific to and required for the eligible major.  A SMART eligible student who is taking general education courses or electives that satisfy general degree requirements but not taking at least one course specific to and required for the eligible major is not eligible for the SMART Grant for that term.
6. Must have at least a cumulative 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale at the end of each preceding term of enrollment in the coursework required for the student's degree/major.
7. The total awarded financial aid cannot exceed the student's Cost of Attendance (COA) minus the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

Once a student has received the maximum $4,000 National SMART Grant Scheduled Award as a third year student, he or she is no longer eligible for SMART Grant as a third-year student. Once a student has received the maximum $4,000 National SMART Grant Scheduled Award as a fourth-year student, he or she is no longer eligible for the SMART Grant as a fourth-year student.

Students who have been awarded the National SMART Grant should carefully note these very detailed and unique federal statutory and regulatory requirements governing how a student’s academic year progression is determined. For this reason, additional hours the university accepts for credit and changes to previously earned grades may retroactively affect a student’s eligibility for the grant.