<p>Take it from a Harvard national Scholar, class of '88, that these MERIT BASED awards do exist. However, NO application is available for them because they get awarded in a need-blind fashion during the admissions process. the point here is to lure people away from Yale (which they did). So while most of my classmates got a packet with their acceptance, a National Scholar (and there are approx 70 in each entering class), will get an actual Award and a separate letter. The letter is thin- so when I opened it I had a heart attack because I thought I was being rejected (rejection are letters are a single page). But the letter was announcing the National Scholarship which covered everything even though my financial aid award would NOT have done that. Lots of schools have these ways of luring the best candidates- because these people get accepted pretty much everywhere. There was even a reception for the dozen or so National Scholars at the NY Harvard Club, because quite a few of them were from NYC. This fund is a lifetime endowment and gets applied to any further studies. It is also completely separate from National MERIT Scholarships, which have open criteria.</p>