<p>But I learned this year that merit is also considered in some grant awards – both in whether or not to award grant-aid in the first place, and in deciding how much to award.</p>
<p>Yes…a little known secret is that schools that don’t meet need often practice “preferential packaging” which means that if you have high stats or some hook and the school really wants you, then the school may put together a more generous need based FA pkg.</p>