Hey guys, I’m a senior in HS right now and I am 90% sure I’m going to attend Alabama next fall. I toured campus today (and loved it) and am going back tomorrow to talk with a professor in the College of Engineering. I also got the Presidential Scholarship and the extra $2,500 per year for picking a major in engineering. Since my tuition is covered, what can I put the engineering money towards?
Thanks and roll tide!
Your room, board, books, etc.
Room and board, fees, books, laundry, pizza, travel, the list is long and varied.
Most freshmen have to live on campus and have the mandatory meal plan. The Presidential Scholarship is for tuition only. The engineering scholarship can be used to help pay for your dining plan or for the dorm your freshman year. In future years it can go against fees. Any excess will be refunded and you can use it for your apartment rent.
Ohhh okay, thanks everyone, I don’t know why but I guess I just thought room wasn’t covered by scholarships. But it makes sense because everything is owned and operated UA. Can it be used for study abroad?
ask the one who issued you the scholarship if they will allow you to study abroad. its a good idea since you’ll be exposed in an environment you’re not familiar with. but be careful with this decision, you might miss a lot of things especially your family.
Yes, you can use it towards study abroad.
Don’t forget that you’ll likely have to pay taxes on it. A huge chunk of my daughter’s CBH scholarship goes to taxes, since it’s taxed at our rate.
@beth’s mom I thought that was just overage?
@awsamb do you not need room and board or is it included?
I also toured the campus, honors college, and met with a ChE professor. Awesome. I was told the $2500/year will be a credit toward the room and board and other fees. So you can ask your parents to credit you.
It is just overage, but my daughter didn’t have a whole lot of qualified expenses beyond tuition, so she ended up paying almost a third of her CBH scholarship in taxes. She paid no taxes at all on the Presidential, of course, since that matched up with the tuition amount. Remember that room and board are not qualified expenses.
Course fees and books are qualified expenses. I don’t know how much @beth’s mom 's DD CBH scholarship is, but she can deduct course fees and books, which should be about $1500 a year.
Why no pay from the 529s? That’s tax free.
^^ Her course fees and books were less than that, and she had to pay taxes on the excess at the highest marginal rate. Suffice it to say that she didn’t have the money to pay the taxes (it was already spent on school expenses, which exist even if they’re not “qualified”) so we ended up paying them for her. That seemed appropriate anyway, since the tax at her rate would have been much less. A student who has to pay his or her own taxes does need to keep them in mind, though.