@privateID I think you are right that your story could help others. But people should remember that different schools handle this kind of thing differently. In our experience, sometimes schools even do thing differently than they originally told you. ?
My D’s school is “no loan”. She received some financial aid including grants and work study. Two months later they awarded her a university merit scholarship. When I call to ask how it would affect her financial aid, they told me that university merit scholarships stack on top of financial aid with no reduction, and that outside scholarships would reduce financial aid by 50 cents on the dollar. However when she received a $2,500 outside scholarship later, we never saw any reduction in financial aid – a pleasant surprise!
Knowing how the school will treat inside and outside scholarships can make a big difference to the bottom line as you are deciding which school is more affordable.