We targeted T20 competitive merit for my white suburban 4.0 35 ACT kid. A talented kid, but not a Nobel prize winner or Facebook founder.
We didn’t bother chasing the uber-ultra-competitive full rides like UNC/Morehead, UVA/Jefferson or Duke/Robertson. Too much work and powerball odds. Instead, we targeted the slightly less competitive (but still non-auto very very competitive) schollies at Vandy, ND, Rice, Emory, Tulane. Those were a mix of half tuition to full-tuition awards.
Got accepted at all those schools. Got no comp merit traction at all at ND, Rice, Emory or Tulane. Did get a nice half tuition auto merit award from Tulane. But hit the bulls-eye at Vandy – full tuition Chancellor Schollie. That schollie has a community service focus, and my kid had that going on in spades.
No interview required for Vandy, but separate application and essays were required. It was pretty much work to chase all those possible schollies. Several other T20 merit schollies did require interviews/visits in addition to the separate app/essays.
Among the T20, Vandy probably does the most big merit, in terms of number of awards (maybe 150 a year) and size of award (full tuition). ND, as a comparison, does less than 100 and the top award is $25k – less than half tuition. Next after Vandy are probably WUSTL and Emory. And then Tulane (although T40 rather than T20).