If a school meets 100% or almost 100% needs but they also give merit, I know few do, do you get the merit and then needs is reduced? I assume you don’t get more. We are looking in the northeast. Thanks.
Generally, yes, your need-based aid would be reduced.
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School dependent. What college(s)?
Depends on the school but most follow this formua:
COA - merit - family contribution - work study - poss govern subsidy = institutional grants. (for no student loan schools)
Total sources of funding will never exceed COA, unless it is some external foundation money which can get funded directly to the student (rare).
When merit grants are added on top of need grants without reducing the need grants, I would call this stacking. And whether or not merit grants are stackable can depend not just on the college, but in fact the specific grant program at the college. So you have to look up the specific merit program and see if you can find some sort of statement on whether merit and need will stack (not necessarily under those terms).
These might not all be that high of needs based aid but…Washington and Lee, Trinity College in CT, Connecticut College, Holy Cross, Rochester, Providence, Case Western
Here is a thread from 2020 listing some colleges’ policies on how outside merit scholarships affect need-based financial aid. Note that a common policy is to apply outside merit scholarships to replace student loan and student work(-study) in the financial aid package first, but then reduce college financial aid grants.