It sounds like merit scholarships are rare and only people with near perfect SAT scores and perfect GPAs with 10 AP classes get them. Are merit scholarships more common than I think? Also, how much did you get from merit scholarships?
HSS, the requirements for receiving merit awards vary considerably from college to college. There are some pinned threads about scholarships at the top of this forum. I would urge you to read those to see some of the variation.
Remember only around top 1-5% students receive merit scholarships. You may get some idea from the admission stat. If you are not clearly above the 75 percentile, you are not likely to get one.
Disagree ^^ It really depends on the school. Both of my daughters have merit scholarships, and a huge chunk of kids from their schools do too. The one at a private school gets about half her tuition, and she didn’t have top scores or gpa. Good, but not top. Her school also gives a guaranteed merit scholarship of about 1/3 of tuition to students with certain achievements that aren’t just based on grades: eagle scouts/g.s. gold award, STEM high school graduate, and robotics team member are some of them. Other daughter goes to a school that awards merit for gpa/ACT score combos, with the higher the number, the more you get. It is actually possible for the entire entering class to have some type of merit if every single admitted student scored the minimum combo. Unlikely, but possible.
It is the COA - scholarship that really matters, as you can tell the successful sales pitch relies on offering enough money for an applicant to feel good about paying. An expensive private that gives you 30K a year might still be more expensive than your better ranked state uni. Highly desirable schools and great state schools don’t have to bait students with merit.