My daughter is a freshman NMS, in-state. I know the room and board portion of the NMS scholarship decreases after freshman year. Can the remaining room and board money be applied to the campus-owned apartments?
Yes. It can be applied to non-campus owned apartments as well. I cannot remember the name, but S1 and at least 11 other guys from the NMS class last year are living in the same complex off campus this year.
My D is a second year NMS. Her dorm was covered the first year (cheapest room rate) and that could only be applied to the dorm. She also received the other stipends which can be used for anything … meal plan, fees, books, etc. After the first year, they receive the stipends but not any scholarship specifically for room or board. Those stipends can be used for rent, on or off campus.
@Torveaux , @ohmmom I read the 2nd year and on for the National Merit package is about $8000 short from being a full ride. Have you found this to be true? Can it be made up from other departmental scholarships?
hsmomof3, from the 2nd year on, the NMS package does not include room and board. To call it 8000 assumes you live in the dorms, which is expensive. OU stacks scholarships with NMS, so if your child takes the time to apply for any other scholarships and gets them it can definitely help. I know there are students who actually end up getting ‘paid’ to go to school.
For our son, the apartment runs about 400 a month during the school year. They spend about 100 a month or less on food. (all 4 boys in the apartment actually buy groceries and cook real meals daily). So that works out to about 4500 a year for room and board.
@hsmomof3, Sorry for the delay in responding; I haven’t been on CC lately. Our experience is that it is no where near $8k. For year two, I have paid about $2800 to the bursar account to cover the apartment (Traditions) and any other charges not covered by NMS. My D has an allowance of $200/month to cover food, gas,entertainment and anything else she might need. She also has a PT job for a few hours a week to supplement her allowance, but it doesn’t look like she has actually needed it. A word of warning: keep your records of qualifying education expenses such as textbooks. Between her scholarships and PT job (that did not withhold any taxes), she had to pay federal and state taxes. Part of that was because she studied abroad last summer and received study abroad money from the NMS and the Global Engagement Fellowship and we were advised that study abroad travel expenses are not qualifying educational expenses. The small amount of taxes she paid was minor compared to what we saved with these scholarships.
@ohmmom Thanks for the info. Few questions to understand.
- $2800 for apartment, is it for 1 year or 1 semester?
- If it is for a semester, Apts 22800 = $5600 versus dorm $9154-22134 = around $4900 If $2800 is for year then $2800 versus $4900 then $2000 savings.
OU web site data: Room and Board: Double: $4,577/semester; $9,154/year; Meal plan $2,134/semester;
It is an eye opener that we need to pay some taxes for few items. Can you please tell me which items from the following NMS list, we need to pay tax? You already confirmed item 6. How about others? Anything stated as cash like item 3 & 5 alone?
- Tuition Waiver: 100% waived for 5 full years (Fall, Spring & Summer) including graduate programs
- OK Academic Scholars program: $22,000 - $2750 per semester for 4 years (including graduate programs) - (offset costs of fees, books, room and board)
- National Merit Cash Stipend: $5000
- Housing Scholarship: $4200 - Must live in OU residence hall during freshman year
- Technology & Book allowance Cash: $2000
- Research and Study Abroad Stipend: $2000
@ohmmom yes thanks so much for the info! He now has everything covered with outside scholarships for the first year. Do you know if 2nd year and on scholarships are plentiful for good students at OU? lol…I hope so! #BoomerSooner:)
@GoldenRock it’s not about which pot the money comes from, it’s how it’s actually used and how much money you get over and above Qualifying Educational Expenses (QEE). QEE includes tuition, books, certain fees, required equipment it does not include money spent on transportation, food, dorms, medical insurance… You get $2K for a for a Technology & Book allowance if you only spend $500 on books and technology and use the remainder to offset housing cost or even save it for use next semester which is in the next calendar year, you will be taxed on the remaining $1500.
The really bad news for some of us is that money from scholarships are considered UNEARNED INCOME and the student is taxed at the parent’s rate because of the kiddie tax laws.
@GoldenRock, the Bursar’s office itemizes charges and the scholarship money and other payments that are paid to the Bursar’s office and then a balance due or overage results (overages are paid to the student). For D’s first year, we didn’t pay anything out of pocket because with all the scholarship money (including the Technology money and the NMSC portion of the scholarship; because D had a NMSC scholarship she received a check for $2500 each the first two semesters, but different sources of the $5000 award pay differently). She had some money left over from that and a little from travel abroad money (we don’t count food, entertainment, personal shopping as counting toward scholarship money). For her 2nd year, we paid about $2800 total for the year ($1400 per semester) on the balance of her bursar account. I believe it was primarily rent, but I didn’t break it down. That does not include books but D is much more savvy this year about minimizing those costs. I do track her textbook expenses for tax purposes. We find it helpful to have all the textbooks charged to one credit card to simplify tracking.
In January, OU posts a 1098-T with scholarship money and QEE through the Bursar account which is pretty much going to be tuition and fees. In D’s case, the only other QEEs she has are textbooks and any supplies required for a class. As @3scoutsmom pointed out, transportation, food, dorms, apartment rent etc. are not QEE. For 2015, D was hit with first year second semester scholarship money including the dorm and $2500 NMSC + summer travel abroad money (with almost no QEE) + second year first semester scholarship + income from her PT job + income from a paid internship. She did not need to file for 2014 which included her first semester scholarship money (including a $1000 non-OU scholarship) + income from a PT high school job and a summer job. I doubt that she will owe taxes again as the dorm scholarship + NMSC + study abroad money + earned income is not going to happen again in the same year.
My D has not applied for other scholarships at this point. She will study abroad the 2016-2017 academic year and has more study-abroad scholarship money. When she returns to OU, I’m hoping she will have applied for more scholarship money. I apologize for the length of this, but I’m sharing what I wish I had known a year or two ago. Let me know if you have more questions.
@ohmmom Thank you so much for your detailed response and appreciate all your help. Being first/only child heading to college, just new to all these items. Excited but anxious to send far away from home.
@GoldenRock You are welcome. This is my younger child (by many years) and my first experience at scholarships of this size and expenses this high (tuition and fees were much lower 15 years ago, nor to mention when my husband and I went to college). It has been a learning curve for me, I greatly appreciate all the information and assistance I received from others, and am happy to pass on what I can. Good luck. We have been very pleased with the education, advisement, and overall experience that D has received at OU. It has been a very good experience for her and we are very grateful that it has been so affordable … thanks to their NMS support. It is great to be in a highly desirable demographic.
One more bit of information to share: D is in Traditions Apartments and she tells me that they have recently completed construction of a storm shelter that is about 30 steps from her apartment. They have used it once this spring in an abundance of caution. My understanding is that there was an OU employee who was the severe weather coordinator and it sounds like the whole matter was handled very well. It was a great relief to me as spring time in Oklahoma can be exciting in a bad way.