From what I've heard from other people, each department is allotted a certain amount of money for scholarships. Thing is, if they hand out scholarships to people who don't go to that particular school then they lose that money. So schools are prepared to hand out money to people who they know are going to go. The school that the OP applied to might also have a limited number of spots available for their program and they just want to eliminate people for the same reason: No point accepting 3 people who are not going to end up attending. That they sent you that email is a good sign.
Good luck.