With so much grade inflation going on in colleges today, particularly in nonSTEM majors, a university would go broke giving merit awards to the students with high GPAs. It’s not unusual for a university to have 1/3 or more of its student body with 3.5+ GPAs in college.
I ‘ll probably get flamed for this (bring it on, I don’t care), but I have belonged to three very large Facebook college parents groups for several years and it’s not a myth that some majors are much easier and/or less time-demanding. The evidence is clear at one particular time each year…Thanksgiving…when those with less-demanding majors manage to take the whole week off when the school still has Monday and Tuesday sessions. Those in the more demanding majors are lucky to escape campus by 3pm on Tuesday afternoon. Many have to delay leaving campus until Wednesday. It’s a little frustrating to see those with less demanding majors be able to leave campus the Friday before Thanksgiving while the others arrive home just before the turkey is basted.
Anyway, the point being, that schools aren’t going to hand out widespread scholarships for grades. A department major may hand out a smallish award or two to outstanding performing upperclassmen. At best, there may be a small number of depts (Physics, Eng’g, Nursing and Business come to mind) that seem to have a number of one-time endowed awards to hand out to top upperclassmen. But most depts do not have that much money to hand out.
P.S. I know that a number of schools close for the entire Tday week. That’s super. Wish they all did! Sure would make it nicer for those who live a good distance away.