<p>Part of the Carolina Scholars benefits is, according to the website, "Choice of Laptop: Students receive their choice of a Mac or PC laptop." Does anyone have more information about how this works? Is the student given money towards the laptop, and if the student wants to add to it in order to buy a nicer computer, is that option supported? Thanks.</p>
<p>They send you a letter in I think early summer and give you a choice. You fill out form and send it back. They have it waiting for you on move-in day/weekend loaded with all the software. D is junior now. She had choice of 13" MacBook or 15" PC - obviously choices may be different now. But the order is handled entirely by USC so my guess is no, you can’t pay to upgrade…</p>
<p>Last year they also offered an iPad in addition to the 13" MacBook and 15" PC (I think HP). Most Scholars select the MacBook. Everything else worked as scmom12 described above.</p>
<p>Also, beware that you will be taxed on the price of the laptop next tax season. </p>
<p>Well, you owe tax on all benefits that are not excluded as tuition/fees/books. This also includes room and board along with computer. It was a real hit for D this year since IRS now treats this as unearned income and taxed as investment at our rate 
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<p>LOL…you mentioned the IRS! </p>
<p>@scmom12 - very true! I meant to mention that as well. It was quite the surprise for us as well getting hit on everything but tuition/books. </p>
<p>@cannonpalms - Also want to mention that they hook you up with AppleCare for two years. Don’t forget this! There is a place near campus that accepts AppleCare and will repair anything (save for water damage) for free. I’ve gotten a hard drive cable replaced, a hard drive replaced in Columbia, and a hard drive replaced abroad for free. Quite the deal!</p>
<p>The letter last year only gave the three choices. You could not “upgrade” or put a specific dollar amount toward a computing device of your choice. That said, both computers came fully loaded so there wasn’t really a need to add on anything.</p>