Should one add declined awards to a CV? Suppose I'm applying for grad school and I receive a scholarship award to study at grad school A, does it make sense to list such a scholarship award on my CV in my application to grad school B?

Or let's say I go to grad school B, should one still list the declined scholarship award from grad school A in future CV's?



My gut feeling for the first question I asked is that it would seem a bit weird and worse case scenario someone at grad school B is influence to some extent to think  "Well judging by this scholarship award here, this applicant already has a place at another grad school, so declining him/her may not be so bad". Is my gut feeling correct?
I would also agree with your gut feeling in this particular case. I can, however, think of a scenario where a declined award/scholarship should be included on your CV. In countries where you pay to study at a university, you can apply for scholarships/postgraduate awards/student funding. There is often a limit on how much funding an individual can accept. So, say for example you applied for funding from A and B and that these Funding Agents only give funding to high achievers. If you are awarded X from Funding Agent A and Y from Funding Agent B, and you can only accept the funding from Funding Agent A, I would say it is still acceptable to list that you were awarded funding from Funding Agent B but that you were unable to accept it. In cases where the award implies certain personality characteristics/strengths (but doesn't directly compare to the place to which you are applying as in your example), it can be advantageous. I hope that this makes sense.