<p>dancebabe9008, if you’re looking for merit money, you don’t need reach schools. By definition, reach schools are ones for whom you’re not a top student. Merit money is given to top students in the applicant pool. And many of these reach schools don’t even give out merit money at all (any Ivy, Vassar, Wesleyan, etc).</p>
<p>If merit money is an issue, I suggest you stop looking for reaches and look for low matches/safeties.</p>