<p>We were told by my D’s college counselor that merit aid awards always affect your financial aid package no matter what school you attend. Merit aid gets factored into your EFC. If you get a merit award after receiveing your financial aid package, you can expect the school to amend the financial aid package. My understanding is the school does have some lattitude in how they adjust the financial aid package (i.e. do they offset the merit aid by removing grants, loans, self help, etc) and this is dependent on how highly they “value” the student. The feeling I was given was that if your child receives merit aid, there is some negotiation possible in how your finacial aid package is adjusted.</p>