The scholarship is awarded to a "particular" school on the list. So that's where you go.... or PERHAPS try to transfer it which isn't guaranteed and probably not very likely. Sometimes the scholarship gets awarded to a school you didn't even apply to and wasn't on your list. Although this is rare, it does sometime happen on a late scholarship award when the schools on your list are already full. In this case they'll work with you on getting it transferred or getting you into that school. Hope this answers your questions in that regard.
He is going for AROTC and he has been accepted to 6 of the schools already. It just hit us the other day that knowing how luck is, the one school he has not heard from yet will be one of the schools they tell him he can go to. Of course this school is the favorite. Plan b-z is just waiting to be put into effect if plan "a" doesnt work out. The part of being in limbo and not just forging ahead is the hardest part.
As Clarkson has mentioned in the past it is impossible to compare last year to this year in regard to scholarships. That being said I can only tell you what happened for my son last year.
Son was board ready for the first board in Oct. The results from that board started coming out around Nov. 15th, he received his letter dated Nov. 19th. Son had until Dec. 19th to make his selection. Son was awarded the scholarship to 5 schools, later boards last year awarded fewer schools. This year they will most likely award scholarships to fewer schools and more in state public schools.
If the notification date is similar to last year for the first board you just might make it by the Dec. 16th date you mentioned above.
Good luck to your son.