If you really want this information, consider taking the time to review the most recent Common Data Set information for each of the colleges that may be of interest. The financial aid section will be a little more than 1/2 way through. Once you find it:
(1) Compare the line for Institutional Scholarships/Grants (a) Need Based; against, (b) Non-Need based. The total dollar value of non-need based aid excludes non-need based aid used to meet need, so it is a “merit-only” number for all undergrads (freshmen through seniors);
(2) Go to the next page, which should have a section labeled “number of enrolled students awarded aid” and then: (a) look at the total number of first time full time freshmen; (b) skip over to the next chart showing the number of those freshmen “who had no financial need an who were awarded institutional non-need-based scholarship or grant aid.” That gives you the raw number of freshmen receiving any merit aid and allows you to determine what % of freshmen receive merit-only aid.
(3) The next line should show the “average dollar amount of institutional non-need-based scholarship . . .” Since it is only an average, this number does not necessarily reflect a typical merit scholarship.
(4) Compare the information you looked at in #2 and #3 with the column providing the same information for all Full-time undergrads. If the average dollar amount is about the same and the number of freshmen is 25% of the number of all undergrads with merit scholarships, that suggests the college’s merit scholarship practices are stable. If there was a big drop in the number receiving merit or the average dollar amount for freshmen, that might suggest they are moving closer to a need-based-only model.