<p>Even though Yale as well as Princeton and Harvard have claime they give absolutely no merit scholarships recent findings suggest this is not entirely true. For more information read this article in the yale herald called The Secret lives of admissions offices <a href=“yaleherald.com”>yaleherald.com;
<p>No definitive data or evidence is revealed in the article about secret merit scholarships from Yale or other similar caliber schools.
There are counter examples that include a specific student having received far more financial aid from H or P, than from Y, but also received much much less from Dartmouth than from Y.
So the data can vary quite a bit from case to case.</p>
<p>I find this hard to believe but I am sure that one could make a case. Mostly it seems odd that merit would be awarded to students who could pay at these schools.</p>
<p>At need-based colleges, one would have to apply & qualify for fin aid,
to get any of the supposedly “secret” merit scholarships.
There are many top candidates who do not qualify for fin aid,
so in theory there would be no chance for such a student to get any merit scholarship disguised as financial aid.</p>