This is so true and has been for a couple decades, but is getting worse.
I have a niece who was full ride, including all incidentals through 4 years of University. Absolutely EVERYTHING PAID FOR! No need for working at all during those 4 years!
I asked her at her graduation how much she owed coming out and she said she owed nothing but gratitude to the scholarship funds and those who run them! Oh and to all her fellow lazy students who never bothered to apply for those smaller scholarships under $10,000. She then told me that some crazy % like 40% of those scholarships never get applied for!! Lastly she told me that her "full ride" was about 50% from scholarships that paid well under $10,000 per year.
She did work summers and saved all that money for her future. Now 10 years out of college, she has worked for a major defense contractor and traveled the world, safely! She now lives in Hawaii and handles the finances for a major indigenous foundation for the benefit of the natives, funded by the proceeds of the estate of a Hawaiian Princess!
Crazy story I know, but the take away is there are millions of dollars of unclaimed scholarship monies every year and that smart kids will take the time to write a paper can avoid leaving their higher education $100,000 in debt and being slaves to that debt and the masters who hold the note on their future earnings! In fact, if they do what my niece did, and in the process saved $20,000 over 4 years by working summers, that money put in a Roth IRA over their working career would, in a growth fund grow to well over a million dollars! And that is without ever putting another penny into the account during their working life! If they remain smart and contribute over their working years they could retire at 50!