<p>Some merit awards are truly pie in the sky awards that very, very few will achieve. At some schools, they are still being given because there may be funding and stipulations for those awards, and they cannot be folded into financial aid without violating the terms of the donors. Some schools actively have a program of merit awards to frankly buy what they want. The students who get those awards are not the ones who simply have the highest stats most of the time. I have frequently mepromisntioned on these boards about a situation that I personally know about a young lady with very high stats not getting one of a popular (for this area) college’s merit awards, while I knew another who got one from across the country where I used to live who was not nearly as stellar in stats. Basically this school could fill its class with a certain profile and was trying to broaden the type of top students it gets.</p>
<p>My kids did well in getting award offers from schools that were not in the immediate vicinity where they would provide some non local flavor. Didn’t get much at all from local schools where they were one of the many dozens that a dime would buy.</p>