In terms of top schools that offer merit aid (such as Vanderbilt, Rice), what is the most common amount and what is the range of $? Also, would one need to apply RD? If one applies ED and does not get much or any merit aid, one is committed to attend regardless of aid. We likely would not qualify for any need-based aid unless our circumstances change.
Have a look at the Kiplinger’s “best value” listings.
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts
For private universities and LACs, you can click-sort on columns that show the percentage of students who receive merit aid and the average amounts. These numbers also are shown in each school’s Common Data Set, section H.
I don’t think there is a “common amount” for schools like that since they don’t award to most of their students. So, I guess the “common amount” of merit would be low or zero.
That said, I think Vandy awards a small “up to $5k” NMF award of a few thousand to NMFs. I imagine that Vandy has a good number of NMFs attending. $5k isn’t much when the school costs $65k+
Merit aid is decided long after the ED commitment deadline, so you would have no way of knowing about merit aid if accepted ED.
You can find the statistics on CDS as already suggested, or on collegedata.com which provides most of the same information in more accessible form.
For example, Vandy:
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1562
^^^
I wonder how many of those were NMFs receiving Vandy’s $5k NMF award?