^ This is from a combination of things. The school has stated publicly that it 1) wants to move to fully meeting need for incoming students (which it does not now) and 2) wants to shift more aid from merit to need-based (these two issues are related). Also, anecdotally I have heard from parents that some kids in the class of 2021 received little or no merit aid which was a surprise based on the experience of siblings, neighbours, Naviance, etc. If you have a current HS senior, it probably makes sense to apply EA (deadline 11/1) to try and get merit money. UM has an easy application with no additional essays.