It depends. If it is an unrestricted scholarship, then it can be sent to USMA, and applied to your son's account, which will reduce either the amount he needs to deposit prior to R-Day, or reduce the amount they take out of his monthly pay. However, some scholarships mandate that they must be used for tuition or room and board. Your son will have no costs associated with either tuition or R&B, and thus West Point will not accept those scholarships. My son received several local or community based scholarships, and he was pretty stoked. However one, which I think was for $1500, was limited to be used only at a Michigan school. He had to give it back, so make sure your son is applying for scholarships he will be able to use. It is a pretty nice deal when you get them. We put $2000 deposit in our sons account, and in light of what we don't have to pay for his college we were delighted to do it. The scholarships he was able to use though allowed him to get a larger net from his monthly pay. Most of the local scholarships in my community are non-restricted. But that is not always the case, so check.