<p>I received a full ride (tuition, room & board, books & supplies, study abroad, and funded research) from my first-choice university, but before I had gotten it I had applied for several outside scholarships, and have recently found out that I have won some of them. </p>
<p>With the school scholarship, I have literally no expenses, so what can I do with these others? they total about 5k/yr...I checked out the IRS definition of an "educational expense," but it pretty much only includes things that my school scholarship covers...anyone know of a legal, "kosher" way to spend these $?</p>
<p>What you have to do is notify the university of these outside scholarships that you've gotten. The probability is that the univ. will cut your "full ride" so that you're not getting a free lunch, if you will. If you're lucky, though, they may add it into your account and give you the remaining balance after school starts. I do believe, however, that the latter scenario would be more likely if the full ride was merit-based.</p>
<p>How about buying a laptop, etc.? Does that count? One of D's schools (full ride is still under consideration) does say that they cut the "full ride" amount by the amount of outside scholarships.</p>
<p>you'd have to check these out to see if they qualify, but some ideas:</p>
<p>--travel expenses to/from school (if you have to fly)
--other types of education (e.g. a summer program)
--education for someone else in your family (i know i have some trusts that are transferable between family members... you'd DEF have to check on this one though)</p>