The comments about Merit Aid only going to those students with Financial Need is Completely Inaccurate. I am Director of Selection for a merit scholarship at a T20 school and our Merit Scholarship does not look at Financial Need at all… we have students with family incomes over $500,000, some with incomes under 40,000 and everything in between.
If a merit scholarship does not require you to fill out a FAFSA (examples include The Robertson and The Morehead-Cain and The Park) then financial need is not part of the decision making process.
It is completely inappropriate to make definitive statements that are downright false.