I can think of one situation where a school would “award” merit aid before a student officially applies. And that applies to the schools that offer full-ride and/or other large scholarships to students who have scored above a certain threshold on the PSAT.
IIRC, daughter had not requested info from (and definitely had not applied to) a few large state schools that are known to offer big merit awards based on PSAT…but started receiving materials/invitations that basically said “if you apply here, you will get in and you will most likely be one of our full-ride scholars…please come visit (perhaps they even offered to pay for a trip there?)”. I think it was Spring of junior year (because the NMS announcements don’t come technically come out until the kids are seniors…right?). Schools like Alabama and Oklahoma.
FWIW, Drexel used to be one of the schools that offered scholarships based mostly on PSAT score (full tuition)…but if you go to their site, it doesn’t mention it anymore.