@themommymommy: Can you tell me what you found that a college might sometimes classify environmental science as when it is not classified as a science course?
@Undercovermom1, yes you should include the 529 with your savings and investments if itās a parent asset.
@carolinamom2boys : My sonās scholarship was not taxable, nor considered income. It was not a college-based scholarship, but an outside organizationās scholarship, based on his grades and goals.
I believe scholarship money is taxable only if it and any other aid exceed the schoolās COA, with the portion exceeding the COA being the taxable portion.
@waitingtoexhale - check your Notification Preferences & see if you can opt out of any that might apply to those PSAT threads??? Otherwise, not really sure for thread specific blocking.
@bookmom7 : Drats, there is no such option. Did not see this coming. Thanks.
Thanks for the correction on the CA budget. So sorry to have misinformed folks.
@Waiting2exhale Do you have that thread bookmarked? If so, hit the star on the thread again .
@Sophmore1 Congrats!
@Waiting2exhale I am going to give you the link to the ADSAS website page that describes ācourseworkā if you scroll down to where it says course subjects click on the link that says subject course fact sheet you will get a PDF that lists the categories. It is, as I mentioned, surprising how many subjects that I would have thought would count as science were not for purposes of the āscience GPAā calculation. I have also listed it below though it is really long list. Note that this is just for dental school applications. The divisions might prove to be different for other health science professions applications.
http://www.adea.org/AADSASapp/Instructions/coursework.aspx
2015-2016 ADEA AADSAS (Dental) Course Subjects
ļæ¼ļæ¼Biology
Anatomy
Biochemistry (BIO Dept.)
Biology
Biological Anthropology
Biomedical Engineering
Biophysics (BIO Dept.)
Biopsychology (Any Dept.)
Biomedical Science
Bioinformatics
Biotechnology
Botany/Plant Biology
Brain and Behavior (Any Dept.) Cognitive Psychology (Any Dept.) Cognitive Science
Cellular & Molecular Biology
Cellular Pathology
Dental Anatomy (DENT Dept.)
Ecology
Evolution
Epidemiology
Genetics
Hematology
Histology
Immunology
Medical Mycology
Medicine
Microbiology
Neuropsychology (Any Dept.) Neuroscience
Oral Anatomy/Physiology (DENT Dept.) Oral Microbiology (DENT Dept.)
Oral Pathology (DENT. Dept.) Pathology
Pharmacy/Pharmacology
Physiology
Psychopharmacology (Any Dept.) Structural Biology
Surgery
Virology
Toxicology
Zoology
Chemistry
Biochemistry (CHEM dept) Chemistry
General Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Organic Chemistry
Physics
Biophysics (PHYSICS dept) Magnetism
Mechanical Heat
Physics
Thermodynamics
Other Science
Agriculture
Animal Sciences (Any Dept.)
Animal Anatomy and Physiology Astronomy
Audiology
Biostatistics
Biometrics
Computer Science (Programming/Software) Clinical Sciences
Chair Assisting
Civil Engineering
Dental Hygiene
Dentistry
Dental Materials
Dietetics
Earth Science
Engineering
Entomology
Environmental Science
Electronics
Exercise Physiology
Exercise Science
Flight Science
Food Science
Health Technology
Geology
Kinesiology (Non-PE)
Lab Safety
Limnology
Mathematics
Meteorology
Nursing
Nutrition (Any Dept.)
Radiology
Speech Pathology
Oral Radiology (DENT. Dept.) Oceanography
Physical Sciences
Plant Sciences (Any Dept.)
Radiology
Sports Sciences
Soil Science
Statistics (Any Dept.)
Veterinary Medicine
ļæ¼ļæ¼ļæ¼ļæ¼
2015-2016 ADEA AADSAS (Dental) Course Subjects
ļæ¼ļæ¼Non Science
Accounting Acupuncture Anthropology
Art
Archeology Behavioral Sciences Business
Bioethics (BIO dept.)
Careers in Healthcare
Chiropractic
Communications
Computers (Non-Programming/Software based) Classics
CPR
Community Health
Economics
Education
EMT/Paramedic
Environmental Health
Ethics
Ethnic Studies
Finance
Foreign Languages
Forensic Sciences
Forestry
First Aid
Geography
Gerontology
Global Health
Health Administration
Health Science
Health Services
Horticulture
History
Humanities
Human Development
Human Sexuality
Kinesiology (PE, Weight Lifting, Fitness) Linguistics
Logic
Massage Therapy
Management
Marketing
Medical Ethics
Music
Occupational Therapy
Personal Health
Philosophy
Physical Education
Physical Therapy
Political Science
Psychology
Public Affairs/Administration Public Health
Public Speaking
Rehab
Religion
Science Writing/Reading Social Sciences Sociology
Social Work
Speech
Sports Administration Teaching Science Introduction to Theater Wildlife Studies Womenās Studies
English/Literature
Bible Literature
Composition
Developmental Reading (READ or ENG Dept.) English
ESL
Journalism
Literature
Medical Terminology
Poetry
Reading Skills
Theater Literature
Rhetoric
@carolinamom2boysā¦it depends. See https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc421.html
Here is a good explanation from another web site (not the IRS):
Scholarships that are tax-free:
According to the IRS, certain conditions must be met for a scholarship or fellowship to be tax-free:
The student must be a degree candidate at an eligible educational institution, which generally means an institution with a regular faculty and curriculum and a regularly enrolled body of students.
The scholarship or fellowship money is used for qualified expenses. This includes tuition and fees, books, and course- or degree-related costs (like supplies required for specific classes) but does not include other college-related costs such as room, board and travel.
The money does not represent wages for teaching or other work.
That sounds pretty clear. However, for a scholarship to be completely tax-free, all the money must be used for qualified expenses. For example, if your daughter received a $10,000 scholarship and tuition was $15,000, she wouldnāt owe taxes on the money. However, if her scholarship was $20,000 and $5,000 went for room and board, that $5,000 would be considered taxable income.
@carolinamom2boys: No, I donātā¦but Iām trying to figure this out.
So for constant thread notification some of you have merely bookmarked the thread that you wanted to follow, and then changed all notification preferences to only ānotify me when someone comments in a thread I have bookmarked?ā
I have just about everything checked for notification, and have bookmarked only those I thought would provide useful information when the need arises.
@bookmom7 I have a D17 too so yes PSAT here. We had a very busy day with senior night sports banquet and my D has lots of homework so she hasnāt checked her PSAT yet. Says itās Schrodingerās PSAT score. Smart butt kids 
Our state has a very high score for NM and she does way better on the ACT format so Iām not pushing it ā¦yet.
Thanks @GoldenWest .
Iām looking forward to reading about class of 2017 PSAT results, since we also have a S18.
@Undercovermom1 If you have any other kids it is better to leave the 529 in the grandparentās name because then it only goes on the CSS if a school asks for grandparent assets as an extra question. If you do this and then wait until the last year of college to use it it isnāt counted as a parental or child asset.
@mstomper: Regarding class of 2017 PSAT results, those kids are over there losing their minds, poor babies.
@Themommymommy : Okay, I had a really difficult time going in the way you suggested, but I finally got there.
I think Iām seeing something differently than you, though. Where the initial page you linked to discusses how the science GPA will be calculated, it includes Other-Science courses in its calculations. However, Non-Science courses are excluded.
Under Other-Science falls Enviromental Science, but under Non-Science falls Environmental Health.
Am I reading that wrong?
@GoldenWest is right. Scholarship money that pays for tuition is not taxable but any portion that pays for room and board is taxable income to the student. My DDā13 has to pay taxes on her financial aid every year.
Oh yes and she got hit with the kiddie tax last year and had to pay at our tax rate not her own.
Oh, I see. So my sonās scholarship stopped just at the point of fulfilling the student portion of his expected contribution for tuition, leaving the room and board untouched.
@Waiting2exhale the calculations that my son had to do were āscienceā GPA, a BPM (I think it was bio, physics, math) GPA and then the ānon scienceā GPA. The nuances of how each course was categorized actually sometimes came down to the department the particular course was listed in at the college where the course was taken. So for example a psych stats course that was mostly math but listed in the psych department was ānot mathā but had it been listed in the math department it would have been math. Likewise it seemed that enviro courses that were listed in the enviro department were not BPM and possibly not even science while a similar course offered by the bio department would be considered biology. It was really difficult to figure out (at least for us). The rules seemed to be endless. It was info I think would have been helpful at the beginning of his college process but he is my oldest and I never even thought to take a look that far down the road when he was 17-18 years old.