The Scholarship Displacement Census, 2026

Finding 1: Full stacking

Full stacking is nearly extinct

Of the 586 colleges whose outside-scholarship policy we read and classified, just 14 (2.4%) are classified no-displacement: the published language we located indicates an outside award stacks cleanly on top of institutional aid with nothing cut. This is the category to look for: published language indicating a Rotary or Dollars for Scholars check lowers the bill instead of replacing aid the school already offered. Even here, confirm scope with the aid office. Some schools' language covers a specific named award rather than the whole package.

• University of OregonCovers: the Apex Scholarship (named award)

  “Receipt of scholarships from organizations and agencies other than the University of Oregon will not affect your Apex Scholarship.”

  The school’s own words · Retrieved Jul 21, 2026 · Source: financialaid.uoregon.edu

• University of North DakotaCovers: UND scholarships

  “You may accept non-UND scholarships without affecting your UND scholarships. External, non-UND scholarships must be accounted for in your financial aid package.”

  The school’s own words · Retrieved Jun 5, 2026 · Source: und.edu

• University of West FloridaCovers: the Admissions Merit Scholarship (named award)

  “If I am also receiving any private scholarships or federal funds (grants and/or loans), will I still receive my Admissions Merit Scholarship? Yes. …”

  Read the full policy language

  “If I am also receiving any private scholarships or federal funds (grants and/or loans), will I still receive my Admissions Merit Scholarship? Yes. The Admissions Merit Scholarship is a University award and will be applied first to your direct costs. Any remaining balance will be covered by your private scholarships/federal funds. If any awards remain once your bill is covered, they will be disbursed to you per University guidelines. ... Students who live on campus will have the full value of their award and Florida Bright Futures scholarships applied to their tuition and fees, on-campus housing, and meal plan costs. The Florida Bright Futures scholarship applies directly to tuition and fees. The Admissions Merit Scholarship will cover any remaining University expenses, specifically on-campus housing and meal plans, up to the value of your award. If any funds remain, then you will receive an $800 per-semester textbook stipend.”

  The school’s own words · Retrieved Jun 7, 2026 · Source: uwf.edu

We name the 3 we can defend without hesitation: each one's own words, quoted above, are unambiguous that an outside award will not reduce the aid the quoted policy covers (for some schools that language is specific to a named scholarship rather than the whole package; read the excerpt). The other 11 schools are typed no-displacement in our registry from a less airtight signal and are held back from public naming until they clear the same bar. That is a deliberately higher standard than a keyword match, because a family, or a reporter, will click through and check. 1 of the 14 is additionally flagged provisional in the dataset's notes column, pending source re-verification.

n = 586 classified policies (14 clean stacking, 2.4%). Every named school's classification carries a verbatim excerpt from its own financial-aid page, last verified July 14, 2026.

Finding 2: The silence problem

298 of 750 colleges give a family nothing actionable

164 of 750 verified colleges (21.9%) have no outside-scholarship policy in our registry at all. We have not located a page that answers the question for that school. A further 134 (17.9% of all 750; 22.9% of the 586 we did classify) are different: we found and cited a specific financial-aid page for each one, and it simply never states what happens to an outside award. Add the two together and 298 of 750 colleges (39.7%) leave a family with nothing to act on before applying.

n = 750 verified schools. Silent = 164 (no stackingPolicy record). Unclear = 134 (a classified policy, typed "unclear"). Schools with a stated rule of any kind are excluded from both counts.

Finding 3: The modal policy

A cost-of-attendance cap, not a stated order, is the most common rule

Among the 452 colleges whose page actually states a rule (this excludes the 134 that are unclear), the single most common policy is a cap, not a loan-first or grant-first order. 242 colleges (53.5% of the 452 stated policies; 41.3% of all 586 classified) say total aid may not exceed cost of attendance, without committing to what gets trimmed first if a family gets close to that ceiling.

A cap is usually benign: it only binds a student whose aid package is already near full cost, which is rare. It is a different mechanic from an ordered rule. The rest of the stated policies split into 145 loan-first (the order is specified, and it trims loans or work-study before a grant, benign for almost everyone), 19 grant-first (the order is specified, and it is the one to check before applying), 32 mixed or conditional (the aid office decides case by case), and the 14 no-displacement schools from Finding 1, where the award simply stacks.

Denominators: 242/452 stated policies (53.5%); 145 loan-first, 19 grant-first, 32 mixed, and 14 no-displacement out of the same 452.

Finding 4: The one to check

19 colleges publish a rule that can cut your college grant first

19 of the 586 colleges we classified (3.2%; 4.2% of the 452 that state any rule) publish the order that can reduce your institutional grant before anything else. It only matters if your student actually receives a college grant (full-pay families are unaffected), but it is the one worth confirming before you spend hours applying somewhere on the strength of a scholarship that might just replace aid you already had.

The named, source-checked roster is in final review (every school on it is being re-verified before publication) and will appear here once each one clears our verification bar.

n = 586 classified policies. Grant-first = 19 (3.2%).

Finding 5: The opacity gradient

The cheaper the sticker price, the less a college says

Among the 487 colleges with both a published cost of attendance and a classified policy, the share whose located policy never states an outside-scholarship rule falls in every successive price band we measured, from sub-$40k schools down to the $70k-and-up tier. That measure excludes the 164 schools where we could locate no policy at all. Include the 152 of them that publish a cost of attendance, and the pattern holds and steepens (see the chart note). The families with the least to spend get the least clarity about what happens to outside money, and the fix is the same one email at every price point.

Bands are published cost of attendance: Under $40k (54/163), $40k-$55k (20/85), $55k-$70k (15/91), $70k and up (17/148). n = 487 typed, priced colleges.

The evidence behind it

Built to be checked

Loan-first, and pricier than average

145

Loan-first schools trim loans or work-study before a grant, benign for almost every family, and skew expensive: median published COA $73,483 among loan-first schools (n=130) vs $53,910 across all classified, priced schools (n=487).

Mixed or conditional, case by case

32

32 colleges publish a rule that depends on circumstances the aid office decides at the time. Ask before you count the money.

Classifications quoting the school’s own words

99.5%

99.5% of the 586 classifications carry a verbatim excerpt from the policy page they were read from, not a paraphrase.

Legislative context

Six states have acted since 2017, none since 2023

Maryland banned scholarship displacement at its public four-year colleges in 2017, the first state to act. New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania, and California followed between 2021 and 2022, each scoped differently: some to public institutions only, California to any institution tied to state financial aid. Minnesota is the most recent and the narrowest: its 2023 law bars displacement only for recipients of the state's own North Star Promise scholarship, not for outside scholarships generally. No state has enacted a new restriction since.

External literals, not registry-derived. Each citation was checked against an official legislature, regulation, or session-law source before publication; see the linked source for the full text and any subsequent amendments.