<p>What if you applied for scholarships at your safety schools, won some big ones, but you know that you would choose your dream school with no aid over the safety with lots of aid? All said, you want to keep the scholarship in mind if lots of rejections come in the spring. If the scholarships that you win are a pretty big deal, but you don't know if you are going to accept them, is it wrong to even consider them in the first place? What do they do with your scholarship if you decline it? If they give it to the next candidate, how do they notify him/her in time to really be of much help?</p>
<p>I think most scholarships that are offered at the time of admission are not given to anyone else if the awardee chooses not to enroll.
One school specifically states on its website that they already take into account that most applicants will not end up enrolling when they award scholarships, so they actually award more scholarships than they intend to "pay" for.</p>
<p>The thing is no one really knows for sure where they will end up until all the offers are in and they have some time to think about it. It is amazing how things can change between now and April. </p>
<p>I knew a young man who was offered a full ride at a top LAC 10:00 pm the night before he had to make a final decision. The scholarship opened up when someone else finally declined it. </p>
<p>I also know a person who accepted a rare free ride at a State U., went somewhere else, but never bothered to tell the State U. That's just wrong and the State U. is lucky not to have him and his lousy character.</p>
<p>So scholarship offers are declined and more are given out late into April. That's just the way it works.</p>