utlimately a surplus in DS's or DD's school account ends up as a reimbursement to the student. Hey, what a great way to build a savings account during college,
I could be wrong, but I highly doubt that this would be the case. In every case I looked into, merit scholarship is to be used only against school billable services.
For instance, if there were multiple scholarships including outside one that created a total pool that is larger than the cost of attendance, the school simply reduces theirs so that the student comes out at best full ride (all expense covered), not SAVING money for the future. Most external scholarships come with a stipulation that they are used against school billable services (tuition, room, board, etc).
Case in point: when my S1 (not the ROTC kid - S2) won a national competition sponsored by a wall street firm in his high school year that came with a very substantial scholarship he can take to any college he chooses to attend, that was paid directly to the university, he chose to attend in the fall, not given away as a cash prize for him to use for whatever purpose he chooses. Ditto about the national merit finalist scholarship S1 got too: it went straight to the school. My S1's friend had one too, and he also got the full tuition merit scholarship from the school, and when the national merit scholarship was offered, the school simply reduced theirs. No extra pocket money for him! It's rare to have an out right cash giveaway as a scholarship. My S1 had a couple of those too, but they were very small amounts (less than $1000).
I may be wrong about multiple scholarship issues, so you need to check with the school that is offering the scholarship and how they handle external scholarship on top of their own merit scholarship.
If you have a the luxury of multiple scholarships, then you need to think about pros and cons of which one to stick to. Suppose you turn down the ROTC scholarship since you have the school provided merit scholarship. Obviously, there are advantages to this scenario. And, visa versa.
Here is one thing my S2 shared with me. Note: he is an Army ROTC kid. So, I don't know how much it applies to NROTC.
He is a full 4 year scholarship cadet at a very expensive private school. The monetary value in and of itself was amazing since the school also provided free room and board. But the value of the ROTC scholarship is beyond just money alone.
What he found out as additional benefit is that he was able to contract immediately: non scholarship students do not contract until the third year (I believe). The benefit of contracting right away is, he is able to apply to all sorts of programs right away. Without the "contracted" status, he can't. For instance, he applied to the CULP program (summer program overseas) for next summer. He may or may not be selected. But without the contracted status, he can't even apply. The summer after that, he plans to apply for other programs like airborne or air assault training program. Again, without the contracted status, you can't apply to those.
On a very minor note, since he passed PFT right away as soon as he arrived at his school, he was contracted immediately. As a result, he was immediately issued all the gears, uniforms, etc. Non contracted students (no scholarship) had to wait a couple of months for that. Just a minor issue, but he was tickled pink to have all this right from the beginning.
I believe the scholarship is more than money. For a very motivated cadet, it allows him/her to stand out from the beginning and take advantage of all that they program has to offer.
Good luck. Your son is in a very enviable position. Congrats.