You do realize room and board are either the first or second biggest expense while in college? The fact that they are not considered qualifying educational expenses is preposterous since shelter on or near campus is a prerequisite to attending college. Due to its omission in the tax code, the gap between scholarships, grants, etc., and the tuition and fees makes poor, immensely indebted students pay even more taxes after doing the 1098-T form a lot of the time; when in reality, all their scholarships and grants went to expenses related to college, which are housing, tuition, and other miscellaneous fees charged to us for events and services on campus. So in truth, there is no gap between the two boxes in real life as they are on the paper so that there should be no extra taxation of students. Colleges make sure they do not give us more money than we need to break even.
