That ED agreement refers to “financial aid” and does not distinguish between merit aid and need based aid. Since my understanding is that technically merit aid falls under the umbrella of financial aid, then I am unsure of where you see the rule that only need-based aid is a justification for backing out of an ED agreement. Wouldn’t you think that if that were the intent of the ED agreement, it would clearly state that not receiving merit aid is not a proper basis upon which to terminate an ED agreement? If this were an issue, one would think that the ED agreement would address this.
University of Chicago, distinguishes the difference between merit aid and finacial aid.
University of Chicago states the following regarding Merit scholarships
Merit money is not guaranteed .
University of Chicago Financial aid
[quote]
https://financialaid.uchicago.edu/files/documents/no-barriers-overview.pdf[//quote]
If you did not apply for financial aid because you knew that you had no financial need, then you can’t withdraw based on the fact that you did not get merit aid.