If I win an outside scholarship, does it stack with my Dillard award?

Not necessarily. Dillard requires recipients to pursue and report outside scholarships, and reserves the right to swap an institutional award for an external one of the same amount when it covers the same costs. Total aid also cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance. Ask the aid office exactly how a specific outside award will affect your package.

Dillard· Outside Scholarship Displacement

Will Dillard Reduce Your Outside Scholarship?

When you win a private scholarship, who actually keeps the money: your family, or the school?

Verified Jun 20268 days ago· CC

The rule at Dillard

Mixed displacement

Dillard displaces some aid categories but not others. In plain dollar terms, that means one $5,000 outside award might land against loans, work-study, or institutional grant depending on the category, so outcomes vary.

dillard.edu publishes the $44,420 cost-of-attendance worksheet the math is run against.

Source: https://www.dillard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/scholarshipagreementform.pdf

The math: a $5,000 outside scholarship at Dillard

Setup
Dillard treats different aid types differently. You receive institutional merit + need-based grant + a federal loan offer, then win a $5,000 outside scholarship.
What Dillard does
Some categories reduce first; others stack. Without writing to the aid office, you cannot predict whether the $5,000 cuts loans, work-study, or institutional aid.
Family takeaway
Mixed-displacement schools require a written aid-office answer for each award size. Don't assume the answer matches a peer school.

Schools with the same policy

These schools also use mixed displacement for outside scholarships. The same dollar math above applies at each.

Schools that handle this differently

If Dillard’s policy concerns you, these schools treat outside scholarships under a different rule.

When this rule bites hardest

Expecting an outside scholarship to add on top of the Dillard merit award.
Per the Scholarship/Grant Agreement, the university may SWAP your institutional award for an external one of the same amount when it covers the same costs, and total aid cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance — so winning an outside award often replaces, rather than increases, your Dillard dollars.
Budgeting only to tuition.
The 2026-27 on-campus Cost of Attendance is $44,420 ($20,118 tuition + $13,192 room & board + $3,800 mandatory fees = $37,110 direct, plus books, transportation, and personal costs). Even 'Full Tuition' (Presidential) leaves room & board and fees; only the University Scholarship covers tuition + room & board.

Displacement questions families ask

If I win an outside scholarship, does it stack with my Dillard award?: Not necessarily. Dillard requires recipients to pursue and report outside scholarships, and reserves the right to swap an institutional award for an external one of the same amount when it covers the same costs. Total aid also cannot exceed the Cost of Attendance. Ask the aid office exactly how a specific outside award will affect your package.

Rules that bite at Dillard

Trip wires derived from Dillard's own published policy. These are the things a custom playbook would flag in the first pass.

renewalUniversity Scholarship: renewal floor that quietly knocks awards out
Scholarship/Grant Agreement lists University Scholarship renewal as 3.5 GPA / 24 hrs.: 'University Scholarship (3.5/24 hrs.)' — maintain that cumulative GPA at the end of each spring term and earn at least 24 semester hours per year. Supports up to eight semesters. A single rough term can end a four-year award here without warning if the GPA floor isn't met cumulatively.
displacementDifferent aid types are displaced differently
Dillard treats loans, work-study, and institutional grant under different rules. The same $5,000 outside award can land against any of them depending on category.

Aid-office script (copy & send)

The displacement rule is only binding when it's in writing. This script asks Dillard's aid office the specific question that matters for mixed displacement.

Subject: Outside-scholarship treatment question, fall applicant

Dear Dillard Financial Aid Office,

I'm a fall applicant reviewing how outside scholarships interact with my institutional aid package. I've read the public policy at https://www.dillard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/scholarshipagreementform.pdf and the $44,420 cost-of-attendance worksheet.

Which institutional aid types are protected from outside-award displacement, and which can be reduced?

Is the displacement order published anywhere internally, even if not on the public site? Families need this to compare schools.

A written answer (email is fine) is important because the outside-scholarship awarding bodies want confirmation before disbursing. Thank you for the time.

— [Student name], [Application ID if available]

How Dillard compares across our verified dataset

86 of 751 verified schools in our dataset use mixed displacement.
Dillard is in the modest minority (86 schools share this category). That framing matters when comparing peer schools that may publish the policy differently or not at all.
669 of 751 verified schools publish at least one four-year renewable merit award.
Dillard is one of them. The cohort minority (82 schools) only awards one-year scholarships, which means the four-year value families assume on a brochure quote isn't guaranteed at every school.

Sources used on this page

Every claim is checked against Dillard’s own published materials. Below is the full reference set.