Colleges and Universities with the Most Merit Aid
Elton Lin
When considering colleges, tuition and affordability is often on students’ and families’ minds. How much financial aid does the school usually offer, and what kind of financial aid is available?
While some programs are geared towards families with lower income, like the Pell Grant that uses allotted federal money, there’s also merit aid, a form of financial aid that is non-need-based. These kinds of scholarships are awarded to students to recognize their academic or extracurricular achievements. Because it is non-need-based, merit aid is awarded to college and college-bound students regardless of their financial needs, or lack thereof. In other words, low-income and high-income students alike are eligible for merit aid! The National Merit Scholarship, given to U.S. students with exemplary PSAT/NMSQT scores, is a common example of a merit aid scholarship. Merit aid can come from both colleges and private organizations.
But why do colleges offer merit aid? Colleges often offer merit aid to applicants, even those who come from wealthier families, as an added incentive for high-achieving students to choose their school over others. After all, even a student who is theoretically able to pay the full tuition is less likely to choose a school that doesn’t offer any merit aid over one that offers a few thousand dollars a year. In fact, many colleges offer more merit aid than need-based financial aid because it attracts high-achieving students at less expense for the school; need-based financial aid tends to be more expensive for colleges, whereas merit aid can be exponentially cheaper and still attract many high-achieving students to their campuses.
Unconvinced about wealthier students also getting substantial merit aid? Take Muhlenberg College, a private liberal arts school, for example. According to Stephen Burd, the Senior Policy Analyst of New America’s Education Policy Program, many of Muhlenberg’s wealthier students “receive an average of $12,500 a year in merit aid… About a third of freshmen receive aid even though they don’t have financial need.” The average additional merit aid given to students from wealthier families in private colleges was $5,800, as of 2017. Clearly, schools recognize the benefit in offering merit aid, even to wealthier applicants.
In this race to attract students, some schools are known to offer more merit aid than others. Below are some colleges with a history of offering a substantial amount of merit aid to their students (data as of 2019):
Duke University offers a whopping average of $74,447 in merit aid to a select 6% of incoming freshmen.
Washington and Lee University offers an average of $45,742 per student per year in merit aid to 11% of its freshmen.
Swarthmore College offers an average of $43,252 in merit aid to incoming freshmen.
Case Western Reserve University offers merit aid to 35% of its student body.
Oberlin College offers non-need-based aid to 49% of its student body.
Denison University offers merit aid to 48% of its student body.
Trinity University offers merit aid to a whole 50% of its student body.
From schools that offer merit aid to a large number of its students to schools that offer large sums of merit aid to select students, the merit aid situation is different for each school. Remember to check out the scholarship options when you have your eye on a college, and you’ll be better equipped come application season!