<p>Amherst DOES give Merit scholarships, through Questbridge. Questbridge qualifies candidates as low-income; but the scholarships are awarded based on merit alone. By awarding the scholarship through Questbridge, Amherst is allowed to maintain the need-blind ruse.</p>
<p>Actually, they don't work hard to maintain the ruse any more. President Marx has put a heavy emphasis on recruiting and accepting low-income students for the purpose of increase economic diversity, and the perncetage of Pell Grant students at Amherst has increased by 25% over the past 5 years. You can't exactly be need-blind and offer emphasized application preference to low-income students at the same time.</p>