You write an award-winning essay in high school and receive a $2,000 scholarship as the prize.

But when your college finds out about it, they simply reduce the internal, need-based scholarship it was going to give you by $2,000. You’re no better off at all.

What happened?

Experts say it’s a common practice to replace an internal scholarship with an outside one, particularly among financially squeezed colleges. They have precious few scholarships and need to spread the money around, so when a student wins money they re-allocate the funds they’d set aside.

But every school is different.

Bates, Bowdoin, Colby say they would reduce a student’s loan or work-study before taking it from their internal scholarship. All three colleges say their financial aid packages meet all of a student’s financial need (after the expected parental contribution is considered). Because it’s illegal for a financial aid package to contain more money than the college costs, they say, they would have to cut something by $2,000. But they’d target the internal scholarship last.

“They put the effort in to win the scholarship, so we want it to be worth it for them,” said Steve Joyce, student aid director at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

Unlike the private colleges, the University of Maine in Orono, the University of Maine at Farmington, the University of Southern Maine and Central Maine Community College say their financial aid packages may not meet all of a student’s financial need. So if a student had a hole in their financial aid package, the outside scholarship would simply fill that hole. Nothing would be cut.

But if the student’s regular financial aid package met all need, the schools said they would cut loans or work-study before trimming back a scholarship.

“We would always try to give optimal benefit to the student,” said Ron Milliken, financial aid director for the University of Maine at Farmington.

So what do you do if you get an outside scholarship?

First: Ask the school what its policy is so you won’t be surprised.

Second: Talk to your financial aid officer about the situation. Although financial aid packages can’t contain more money than the college costs, expenses are allowed to be factored in. So a financial aid officer can offset a new scholarship with your travel expenses, technology expenses or other costs not previously considered.

And when you talk with your financial aid officer, do it in person if at all possible.

“The more you know the student the more likely you are to help them,” said Jennifer Mart, an assistant director at the National Association of Financial Aid Administrators in Washington, D.C.

After that, they say: Don’t try to hide your scholarship. Don’t ask the scholarship provider to give you the award in cash. Don’t lie about it.

Chances are your college will find out about the award at some point and you will have lost any chance to plead your case or work with the financial aid office.