Eagle79

1) Go to USNews
2) Look at each school you are interested in
3) Check the Tuition & Financial Aid tab
4) Check the table at the bottom of the tab for Merit Aid

For example:

Tulane:
(% awarded aid) $16,402 (28%) $15,306 (29%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $24,738 (3%) $28,469 (3%)

To me that means that if you are in the top 28% of the applicant pool then you will probably get around $16,402. If your child is in the top 10% of their class and has an SAT score above their 75th percentile I would expect that they would get that type of merit award.

Do the same check for all the schools that you are referencing, i.e. BU, Emory, Grinnell, WUStL. To save you some time here are a few of them:

WUStL:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,813 (16%) $9,231 (14%)

BU:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $11,902 (16%) $14,324 (13%)
Avg. athletic scholarship
(% awarded aid) $27,699 (1%) $28,275 (1%)

Emory:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $12,428 (5%) $16,422 (6%)

Grinnell:
Avg. merit award
(% awarded aid) $10,370 (24%) $8,890 (28%)

To me you are looking for 2 things, the size of the average award and how broadly it is awarded. Using those 2 criterea Tulane probably has the broadest and deepest merit aid program. However, that is not the only reason to pick a school.

Of course there are a number of other schools that give merit aid for certain of their honors programs but those are not broadly administered. For example, Boston College Presidential Scholars Program, Villanova, same thing.

Anyway, good luck to all.