Well we all know I am ancient 
I already said that I was wrong, above. The further comment didn’t change that. I always defer to others, as I did in my first post, since we did not chase merit at all.
We had to do a lot of paperwork for a financial aid appeal. Willingness to look at that appeared to be related to merit at some schools, though it did not go in that bucket. It is illogical to think that need changes. What changes is what a school is willing to pay for a kid they want, and that is based on merit. But it could apparently be discussed with financial aid.
akapiratequeen maybe you could respond to the OP with more knowledge.
It’s just good to be clear on which way to appeal, or maybe both ways . That was my only point.