I am not encouraging tax fraud...
But, if a student owes more in tuition and fees than the scholarship covers....ie $18,000 in scholarship for $25,000 tuition. They COULD be eligible for a tax credit depending on their dependency, filing and income status.
In the mind of a 20 yr old kid...this is getting money back from the ROTC paid tuition. Technically not accurate, but $ they would not get back if they did not files taxes
In 2012, my DS with only interest income on a meager bank account did not file taxes. But we ran the numbers two ways...our dependent and not or dependent. In the latter, he would have gotten $ back as a low income student with @$7,000 in qualified expenses. But for our family tax situation taken In a whole, it was best for us to keep him as a dependent.