He used UofSC in the response directly above mine, so I figured it was understood that USC = S. Calif and UofSC = S. Carolina.
Well a few disappointments over these last couple weeks. But it’s not anything super horrible like running low on toilet paper or anything like that…
She completely beat the odds with Miami and South Carolina, not being selected for Miami’s Presidential Fellows and only getting the lowest award at UofSC - the Horseshoe scholarship. I don’t think she interviews very well, especially compared to most of the other students at those events.
She did receive a very nice letter from the Miami women’s hockey coach, guaranteeing her a spot on the ACHA D1 team and stressing that they were very interested in having her play for them. Miami is pretty much her only option if she wants to continue playing hockey in college, which made not getting the Presidential Fellows sting that much more.
Then last week, we were 3 hours away from leaving for the airport when we got the e-mail from Rose Hulman stating that they cancelled their Chauncey Rose Scholars’ Weekend. They are going to do phone interviews instead. This was disappointing as we really wanted to tour the campus and see what it is like there, especially since they are one of the top 4 schools in terms of chances of attending.
RHIT requires all incoming freshman to purchase a laptop from the school at a cost of $2400 (it better be a really nice laptop!), and because of the last second cancellation they awarded all invitees a scholarship that covers the cost of the laptop - I thought that was a pretty nice gesture.
I still have no idea how many students were invited or how many are awarded the room & board scholarship, but if she wins that it would be a full ride for her there which would be mighty hard to turn down.
She was accepted to Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and UCSD, but as expected the price tag for all of those schools were more than we care to bear. She didn’t get any merit at all from UCLA or UCSD which was disappointing, as I know UCLA was pretty high on her list.
She was also accepted to UC Irvine and awarded a Regents scholarship there, which living at home would bring the cost well within our target range.
We should hear soon from Princeton, Rice, and Northeastern. Not holding our breath on any of those schools being affordable but you never know.
Meanwhile her prep school in Massachusetts announced that they will be closed through the end of April, and will be instituting online classes. Those classes start at 8:45 AM eastern time, and given that we’re in California, well, she’s not too happy about that!
But then came the silver lining : although she was only awarded the Horseshoe scholarship at UofSC, she was named as an alternate for the McNair scholarship. Apparently a few awardees declined and she was informed that she was bumped up to be a McNair recipient! They didn’t make the numbers crystal clear, but it appears that this award, combined with the Provost scholarship for NHRP, means that her cost for Tuition, Room, & Board would be a negative 4-digit number. My checkbook really likes that!
Whew - what a roller coaster! Congrats to her on the McNair - what a nice surprise. When is the phone interview for RHIT?
I’m so pleased for your D that she has more affordable options on the table. Congrats!!!
The MCNair at USC is an awesome award.
I think I mentioned, our DD was accepted at USC, and got their McKissick scholarship. This was in 2005 and it would have been under $10,000 a year to send her there as an OOS student as at the time, tuition was reduced to the instate rate.
She chose to go elsewhere, but it was not an easy decision and she made it the very last day of April.
We all really likes U of South Carolina and the school has much to offer!
1 Like
Congrats…
oh come on Kevin – “Only awarded a horseshoe scholarship” — really, that’s an honor. Well done to her; and hoping that the next level comes through. She’s close!
I get what you’re saying about interviewing. . . . my son’s interviewing skills are so lacking; he’s struggled with speech and talking his whole life. Kid is well liked and witty, but doesn’t interview well. I truly think interviewing is a gift/talent like sports, music, the arts, etc. Again, it sounds like your daughter is doing very well with that.
We’ve applied to many of the same schools on this thread. It’s been interesting how a few of the auto-merit based schools have been increasing their amounts in the last month. I wonder why that is? the current situation?
(and my kid is an “average excellent” kid - not tippy top kid like yours. So auto merit was a great way to go)
Adding…the year my kid went to college, another Cc poster had the same thing happen. Her kid wasn’t a MCNair winner…but he was bumped up as well. He was also a NMS, and he also had extra money each year. He did very well there, and IIRC he was an engineering major.
Save any extra cash…you might need that if your daughter has any tax liability because remember, scholarships that don’t cover tuition, fees, books are considered income.
That’s great news. Congrats to you and your daughter! So nice to read something like this after reading so much bad news.
Miami is full tuition right now, right?
They also promise to keep costs all four years at the rates in effect in freshman year, you don’t have that everywhere.
And she could do hockey if she wanted.
And U of SC sounds awesome too.
I think she could be happy at either of those campuses.
They should be less than $15,000 a year which you said was your budget I think.
I need to start looking into this, it could factor into a final decision. So scholarships that cover room & board, along with excess/refunded scholarships, are taxed? If that is the case, then about $14K from UofSC would be taxed, I assume at our tax rate since she is a dependent. With Federal & California tax, that’s around 38%, or about $5300 in taxes. Plus it looks like we would lose out on the American Opportunity tax credit of $2500. That’s $7800!
Without fully looking at all the details, this tells me that (ballparkish) if we have to pay $2.5K for tuition and $12.5K for room & board at school X, it would initially seem to be $15K more expensive than UofSC. but when taxes are factored into the equation, it really might only be $7200 ($15000 - $7800) more expensive.
Looks like I’ll be adding several more columns to the spreadsheet!
Your kid will have the standard deduction, I believe. So factor that in also.
Your “extra” money likely will cover the taxes she owes.
Yeah, I know. I’m now throwing the word “only” around as an adverb in front of things like “awarded full tuition”. But for UofSC, there is a very big difference between the Horseshoe and the McNair - about $56K total over 4 years. And only 11 of the 36 students were awarded Horseshoe (about 30%), while the rest (70%) were awarded McNair or Stamps, so the odds had been heavily in her favor. Thus the initial disappointment at “only” getting a Horseshoe scholarship.
Yes, scholarships that are used for anything other than tuition, certain fees, and textbooks and other course-required supplies/equipment are taxable income to the student.
Your assumption regarding how the tax is calculated is partially correct. When figuring the standard deduction for a tax dependent, taxable scholarships are treated as earned income (which is generally a good thing because that can lead to a higher standard deduction for a dependent). However, when actually determining the tax owed, taxable scholarships awarded to tax dependents are treated as unearned income and are therefore taxed under the “kiddie tax.” Going forward, the first $1,100 of unearned income for a dependent student is not taxed, the next $1,100 is taxed at the student’s rate, and anything above that is taxed at the parent’s highest marginal rate.
The standard deduction for a single person in 2019 tax year was maximal $12,200 I believe. That usually goes up every year.
If she has a scholarship for tuition specifically, you couldn’t claim the full AOTC anyway. But maybe you could get a partial one for books and qualified fees. That’s what we did.
No, you wouldn’t get an AOTC because you didn’t pay anything. You also didn’t get a credit for new windows you didn’t put into your home, for the child you didn’t adopt, for the electric car you didn’t buy.
You don’t get a tax credit for things you didn’t pay for. Full ride is still better than a $2500 credit, but if you want the credit, spend $4000 on tuition and books.
Kevin - we are figuring this all out for our kid too. I feel like a couple thousand either way is very nebulous for all of the things written above. One thing to remember; AOTC is $2000 spent on QEEs = $2000 credit; $4000 QEEs= $2500 credit. AND it starts phasing out at 160K-180K AGI. The schools he’s looking at are all very similar in total price when you look at it with paying taxes on schollys that dip into R&B; and scholarships that leave a little in tuition and fees to pay but can use AOTC. The one school he loves is nowhere near any of that though! (COSoM.)
We’ve been through this tax issue with D18’s scholarship (see this thread which starts out quite confused but gets there in the end: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2142905-kiddie-tax-and-taxable-scholarships.html#latest).
One thing not mentioned above is that CA didn’t conform to the 2017 federal tax changes so the standard CA deduction is much lower ($4537 in 2020). Because the additional tax is due at parents’ marginal rate (probably 9.3%) it can be advantageous for a CA student with higher income parents who is going OOS to become tax resident in the state where they are attending college if it is a conforming state that matches the federal standard deduction, even though you would lose the ability to treat her as a dependent (a $500 tax credit on your federal return) from 2021 onwards.
Then her additional tax bill should be only a few hundred dollars extra for a $14000 per year taxable scholarship (because you are only a couple of thousand over the standard deduction), though any summer earnings would be more heavily taxed since it pushes more scholarship income into the kiddie tax bracket. Obviously you have to figure out the rules about becoming tax resident in the state where she attends college and do that ASAP after college starts (usually registering to vote and getting a drivers license - this is much easier than qualifying for instate tuition).
It’s so nice to read all of the good news on here - congratulations to your daughter!
Any more news Kevin? She must have all her decisions now, right? Which colleges are the front runners?