<p>I'm looking for scholarships that pay directly to those who receive it, and which doesn't count toward college tuition. Does anyone know>?</p>
<p>Do you mean that you’re looking for scholarships that won’t affect your need-based aid from your college? If so I don’t think they exist. If not, what do you mean by “don’t count” toward tuition?</p>
<p>I think just about every scholarship foundation writes the check directly to the school, or to the school and the student as cosigners. At least that’s been my experience.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the three private scholarships that my daughter receive all require documentation by the school that she is enrolled for the coming semester (she gets two in August, and one in January). Therefore the school would know that she is receiving them, so the money can’t be hidden from the financial aid office, and is documented for her tax forms.</p>
<p>Ayn Rand essay contests are the only scholarship-type things I have seen that don’t pay to the school and instead give you a check.</p>
<p>however, you must still report outside scholarships to your school. The school will eventually find out that you received the scholarship as you will get a tax for for the monies. willful misrepresentation by not disclosing could be be grounds for losing all of your institutional aid or even being expelled from school.</p>
<p>Some small local scholarships do pay direct to the student. But it’s still fraud to fail to report it to your school’s financial aid office.</p>
<p>I assume you’re looking to outside scholarships to help fund living costs, books, etc., rather than just tuition? I received a few small scholarships (roughly $1000 each) that was written out as checks directly to me. I won them as part of our senior awards ceremony in high school, mostly from small local charities and not big organizations. </p>
<p>You would still have to report it as scholarships/aid/income received.</p>
<p>Note that scholarships applied to tuition, required fees and books are tax-free but scholarships applied to room and board and other expenses are taxable income.</p>
<p>Not all schools consider the small local ones as scholarships. My D won several small named scholarships at her HS awards night and, when asked, her U said they considered them as awards, not scholarships. The ones that came from outside the HS community were counted as scholarships.</p>
<p>If the OP is looking to cover extra expenses like cost of living, books or anything else really, any money left over in your college account after all billable expenses are paid would be refunded back to you. So even if the scholarship was made out to the school if you don’t need it to pay your college bill they would give the money to you (unless the scholarship says its specifically for tuition, etc.)</p>