In fairness to you, you did say “It is my understanding that merit is (in some cases) financial aid for wealthier families, a discount to sweeten the pot and make a school more desirable.” I think it is a small amount of cases, and to the extent it does happen, it’s probably more prevalent at private schools as opposed to publics. The NYT and Washington Monthly likely found it hard to resist citing a relatively few schools where merit aid is targeted as a means to enhance the school’s revenue. I may be a snob, but I find it easy to look down my nose at any school that does this. I stand by my position that the vast majority of merit awards that claim not to have any financial component (either for the needy or the definitely not needy students) actually do operate that way.