University of Chicago is an example of a school that has aggressively gone after applicants. They give merit money as well as meeting full need. When they say full need, they mean FAFSA defines ( or close to it) instead of the more restrictive PROFILE A lot of kids have family business and NCP situations that cut into aid awards. Vanderbilt, too, has opened up financial aid eligibility and amounts by not requiring NCP financials.
Some schools spend more of their endowment and other funds on keeping tuition down, merit awards, rather than financial aid. Rice has lower tuition than peer schools, not a such a gap as it once did but you can see the tuition cost differences .
Alabama, I understand , decided to use some of that Crimson Tide money to pull in some academic talent as well as the top national football talent. That’s why the money. There used to be more of these merit awards, but once a school is on a roll in getting more such kids, they pull the money when they don’t need it to entice the strong student. Pitt and Temple are examples. It’s great to get in on these schools while the money is there. UT Dallas and UAlabama are in that place right now. Rice and Hopkins have started some campaigns to better finance those students needing aid.