Especially if you apply to a high-cost college, even families with middle class incomes are often not expected to cover the entire cost of education themselves. Institutional financial aid may well be available even if you are not eligible for a federal grant. Millions of financial aid dollars go unclaimed every year. A few endowed scholarships with quite specific criteria may not be awarded for lack of suitable candidates, but they are rare. Financial aid is not 'funny money'.
Colleges make every effort to award good students all the aid they can.
We do not benefit from unused scholarships. We benefit when scholarships are awarded to help students obtain an education. At Wooster, for instance, in 1999-2000 our students are receiving more than 17 million in institutional grants and scholarships. Merit scholarships are only for exceptionally intelligent students. At Wooster, for instance, half of the students in each year's entering class are merit scholarship winners, including our 'Scottish Arts Scholarship' winners who excel in one of the Scottish musical arts of bagpiping, drumming, or dancing.