Anonymous wrote:My DS got merit aid at schools that were basically his safety or matches or were otherwise he was above average on the statistics. For most schools, there isn't a formula and you just get whatever the school offers.

I remember Miami of Ohio sent a postcard that said what scores got you what amount of aid, but most schools you just have to wait and see later.

So, make sure to apply to some safety schools that your kid would be happy to attend.

Pretty much, by definition, you are only getting merit if you are above average for the school. The point is to attract higher-caliber students to accept. If you are searching for merit, find safeties you can love that give a high % of non-need aid (google school name + Common Data Set).

Not all schools offer merit aid. If merit aid is a priority, you can save time by not considering the schools designated as “meet full need” on this page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission

It depends on the school, some have clearly stated benchmarks in terms of SAT/GPA, etc, for some it’s more holistic. However, once you identified a set of schools you are interested in, the website collegedata.com will tell you the % of kids in each college receiving a non need based aid and the total amount of such aid. From that you can figure out the average non need based grant. If you plug in a few colleges, you’ll see that some give merit aid to pretty much everyone and some barely give anything. You can then act accordingly.