me_irl

Depends on the scholarship and the university I think. At my university a donor would give the money to the school and specify the conditions of who it would go to, and the school would assign it accordingly.

That said, the school sometimes really stretched the conditions to ensure it went to a favoured student (typically the top students). I benefited from one award that was aimed at students who didn't originally grow up in <big city where main campus is located>. Donor grew up in a rural area and wanted to support students who had to move away from home to study. The problem though was that I was living with my parents, studying at <newer campus in smaller city>. I was technically eligible but it was completely against the spirit of the award. In addition, I was being given plenty of other scholarships and this one could have gone to literally anyone else at this campus.