<p>Difficult to say really. My daughter having high stats certainly helped her financially as she got a very good merit money from her school. This along with her need based aid almost completely covered her costs with just a little in loans ($800 this year). However she would have got the merit money even if she had had no financial need whatsoever. </p>
<p>It will not make a difference for most Federal aid. The exceptions I can think of off hand would be for grants that have an academic component such as the ACG, SMART and (I think) the TEACH.</p>