<p>Colleges are building a community, a reputation as well as ratings. Schools use merit awards to “buy” more of the type of students they want on their wish lists. There are wish lists at every school as to what a college wants in their upcoming class, and admissions does keep an eye on that list. You are lucky if your student’s profile lines up with something on that wish list. It can a hook that is not one of the usual ones.</p>
<p>There are also a number of very good schools that would like to get more of a national presence with more students coming from other parts of the country. BC can fill its class with east coast Catholic kids. A lot of catholic schools and LACs would be 80% female, if some enrollment management isn’t practiced, and with prices the way they are these days, merit money is a nice sweetner.</p>
<p>In our case, personally, without merit money, none of the top priced privates are even possible. My kids had throw any of those offers of the table unless some discount in the form of merit scholarships was offered.</p>