<p>Thanks so much for the very helpful replies. I think I got it now. If the scholarships to the main college where the student is rooming and boarding are not explicitly mandated to be used for tuition and fees, you can exhaust scholarship funds left over after paying tuition and fees to pay for room and board, and then the parent can claim paying the tuition at the other schools for the AOC. Just be sure to not deduct from the student’s income the tuition showing up on the 1098-T from the other schools in order to reduce his tax burden, and thereby avoid the “double dip.”</p>