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thumper1: I am not directing my remarks to you, so please don't construe this post as a personal attack.
The use of the term "merit aid" seems like an oxymoron. I object to calling an award that considers need a "merit" award. It seems to me that any award that considers need is need based financial aid. I think only those scholarships that you mentioned that don't require filing a FAFSA or Profile are merit awards. Everything else is need based financial aid.
I think schools couch need based aid as merit aid as a gimmick, to try to make kids and parents feel special, and more predisposed to chose that school. Clear terminology in the world of school costs and how to meet those costs would eliminate a lot of consumer confusion. I think the squishy terminology currently used makes understanding financial aid like understanding taxes -- people feel embarrassed by their ignorance, look to what the equally ignorant Jones' are doing, and then feel bamboozled into assuming massive debt because they foolishly assume that if "everyone" else is doing it must be the right thing to do.
Consumers deserve unequivocal terminology in large financial transactions that will affect family financial planning for many years. Merit money shouldn't consider need, and need based aid shouldn't be called merit money just to lure in customers.
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