The Scholarship Trap
The poverty trap reminds me of paying for college. My university provided unbelievably generous need-based aid. Despite being a private university with a lofty tuition, this made them far cheaper than any other school to which I had applied, including state universities, and may have been the sole reason I was even able to attend anywhere.
All they expected in return was a minimum contribution from the family, but unfortunately outside aid, e.g. scholarships, didn't count. Worse than that, it would be met with an equivalent decrease in the aid provided by the school. (I guess familial cash is more fun to roll around in than non-profit cash.) So unless you could find enough scholarships to cover the aid provided by the university (in my case, well over $20,000 a year), there was no point in even trying, as it wouldn't make a dent in the expected family contribution.
I had one outside scholarship my freshman year. I never bothered to reapply.