Do Merit Scholarships Steal From Low-income Students?

[beth_s_mom]

I thought this was an odd thing to include in an article lamenting giving merit scholarships to the wealthy, since the most selective schools don’t tend to give merit aid:

At our nation’s most selective colleges, a mere 3% of students come from families with the lowest 25% of incomes. In contrast, 72% of students come from families with the highest 25% of incomes. This means that for every low-income student at the elite schools there are 24 wealthy students.

It would also have been interesting to see a stat on how much of this merit aid is actually going to “wealthy” students. My guess is that the truly wealthy students aren’t chasing merit aid, whereas middle class students are more likely to choose a school for its scholarships.