Room and board is not a valid educational expense for the purpose of the tax credit. You also cannot "move" more of the scholarship as taxable to allow yourself to claim a credit-unless the scholarship specifically says that its for room and board before educational (which is extremely unlikely). How much books are we talking about here, and what are the amounts in box 1/2 and 5 of the 1098-T. If the excess if $2500 or more, you would have had to put A LOT of books....
