Q. This is her first year, so it's only one semester on cost. I'm thinking next year will be even more as she will have 2 academic semesters to account for, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to work around this (which I find absolutely ridiculous!)
A. No. The AOC is $2500 maximum, based on only $4000 of qualified expenses. So, more expenses isn't going to get you anymore.
There is no way around room and board being non-qualified expenses. That's the rules. Well, not exactly. The rule is that only tuition, fees and course materials are qualified educational expenses (QEE). Any part of her scholarship not used for QEE is taxable.
