@mom2collegekids , I have wondered the same thing. For a public the are giving lots of huge merit to OOS students, including me. Strangely, they even have pretty decent merit for fairly mediocre stats (I think $9000 for 3.25 weighted GPA). I hope they keep the top two levels of the merit scholarships, though. I really feel Temple has been on the rise and every year have been admitting a more competitive class. I think it’s because of the scholarships. According to naviance, applications from my competitve New Jersey high school have practically doubled in the past couple of years. In 2014 49 applied 32 were admitted and 3 enrolled. In 2016 out of 750 in my class
100 applied 62 were admitted and 9 enrolled. I know that at least 5 of us are getting the top 2 scholarships. It’s not even just the money, the Honors program is top notch, which was actually just as important to me as the money.