@Mwfan1921 Ok, so you are going based on the college reports. Makes sense. Doesn’t apply to us as my oldest isn’t that old to have gotten those reports. When we think of merit we think of merit where it does not consider income ( at all). For example, my kid just applied to a scholarship through one of our financial institutions. It’s based on an essay and grades. They have no idea of income. Another one is based on being an alumni of a particular Summer Camp, no income validation or questions either.
@MWolf In terms of public universities, I would have to see the criteria before I could make a determination. If they are things like the UMass system full scholarship ( I think it’s called Abagail Adams or something) which is based on National Merit scores and GPA then I would say that’s merit. I think that’s an auto free scholarship based on just a couple of factors and I don’t think income is a factor. I haven’t looked at it in a while so naturally if it has an income component than I would say, it’s not merit but combo based.
And there are also scholarships for which you have to have a particular last name or some random connection to something. Or your parent has to work for a specific company, or you have to be a Girl Scout/Boy Scout etc. Those are often combo. Many/most look at the family finances but not all do. Some of the weirder ones, like the named ones often have a listing which states they will also consider others who don’t meet the criteria.