“While you don’t usually have a say in how internal merit scholarship aid will be disbursed, you DO have a say in how outside merit-scholarship aid will be sent to the college.”
Pikachu, this is incorrect. I have sat on the scholarship committee of a foundation, and our recipients had ZERO input in to how or when the funds were disbursed.
Zero. We had students end up with none of the funds because a parent or family member cashed the scholarship check to pay the electric bill… so we no longer sent checks made out to the student. We had students not show up for orientation-- with the funds already disbursed into their account- and a hassle tracking down where is the kid, how do we get the money back so we can give it someone else-- so-- we no longer paid the funds in August.
I can’t imagine an outside scholarship organization (usually a 501 C-3 which has many, many rules governing how charitable funds are used) allowing an 18 year old kid to dictate how the funds get disbursed. That seems like an investigation from an Attorney General waiting to happen.