<p>So I have a scholarship for my four years of college but it only pays for my tuition and i need to keep my GPA above a 3.0 </p>
<p>Anyway I applied for other smaller scholarships to pay for all my books and fees. I won 2 and they are 9k total. This pays for my books and fees for all 4 years. Do they keep your scholarship money in your school account until it runs out or does it only last a year and then the school keeps the rest? I'm so confused. I dont want to apply for new scholarships every year. I thought that since I have enough money to last me 4 years that it would be enough.</p>
<p>It depends on the scholarships. If they are one time scholarships then they are paid out one time. If they are paid directly to the school, then they will probably apply them to any direct expenses at the school for the semester (room and board, books etc). Any money left over will be paid to you as a refund.</p>
<p>Just so you are prepared, any scholarship and grant money that is in excess of tuition, mandatory fees, and required books in the is taxable income to you. So if you are starting school in the fall of 2011 the scholarship money you receive in 2011 that is in excess of these expenses is taxable for federal tax purposes, and possibly for state tax (depending on your state).</p>
<p>I will be commuting so I don’t have to spend money on room and board or mealplans. </p>
<p>The scholarships are mailing me the checks but the check is made out to my school. If they give me the excess money back and then I just give it back to them the next semester and so on will I still have to pay taxes for it? Cause it’s not really excess I received the right amount of money to keep me from paying a penny for my four years of college.</p>
<p>It just seems kind of dumb to me. I wish they would just KEEP the money for all four years.</p>