<p>In short, I won a large scholarship that I really was not expecting. It's covering almost all of my student contribution. However, I had also applied to a bunch more. If I happen to receive more scholarship money than my required student contribution for the year, will my school credit it toward next year? Or will the scholarship-givers save the scholarship for next year?</p>
<p>Or does it differ based on school and scholarship?</p>
<p>Congratulations.</p>
<p>It will differ based on school and scholarship.</p>
<p>Reminder: you will need to pay taxes on scholarships that do not go towards tuition.</p>
<p>Congratulations. When my daughter received outside scholarships that, when combined with her school scholarship put her over the tuition cost, the school school reduced the amount of needbased financial aid by the amount received through two of the scholarships. The other one specified that the school not do that, but allow the amount to be applied to books or other expenses, and the school honored that request.</p>
<p>As mtpaper said, pay careful attention to what the school does and how the school handles this. In January or February you will get a statement of what you received in scholarships and what the total amount of your tuition was. Room and board are not considered legitimate college expenses for tax purposes, so any amount of your outside scholarships that was applied to room and board is considered taxable income. You don’t want to suddenly have to come up with a tax payment you didn’t expect - fortunately my daughter only owed about $100.</p>
<p>Scholarship givers usually don’t know what your actual expenses are and what other money you receive. I can’t imagine that they would defer payments for another year. If you receive much more than you need, the best case scenario would be that any Stafford Loans that you would have needed will be cancelled and replaced by the scholarship money. Some schools are generous and do that; others decrease the amount of needbased grants/assistance that the school itself would have provided. Better to have the loan taken off, to save those repayments and interest.</p>
<p>@OP - consider your relationship with the scholarship-giver.</p>
<p>For example, if you receive a scholarship from your mom’s business, they might be willing/able to write the check to open an account for you at the school bookstore, or to the store where you will buy your laptop, etc. as opposed to writing it directly to the school.</p>
<p>At D1’s school, if she had excess deposits in her account, the school applies them to subsequent semesters. I’m not sure what they would do at the end of the school year.</p>
<p>At D2’s school, if she has excess deposits in her account, the school says they will send her a check at the end of each semester. (She will have to pay taxes on her scholarship money in excess of tuition.)</p>
<p>DD had a bunch of smaller ones that added up to 1 1/2 years of tuition, fees and room and board. Her school just carried the excess over to the second year.</p>