<p>2collegewego, my son only applied to one school which was a need only. The other 7 gave merit aid. The need based only school gave him the most money. The next school, which was ranked lower than the need only school gave him $30K a year in merit money and so on down the line. He got merit aid only at 7 schools. I don’t understand what is so difficult to understand. The higher the ranking of these merit $$$ schools the more money they gave him, so for example, School B with a ranking of 45 gave him more merit money than School C, with a ranking of 65, which gave him more money than School D. with a ranking of 80, etc., etc., etc. His stats, OTOH put him at the top of the heep the lower the school was ranked.</p>