If it’s helpful, my daughter will be attending Grinnell this year and was awarded their top merit scholarship, Presidential, at $50K per year. We were obviously thrilled, but also a bit stunned. I have no idea what the criteria are or how many of these they give out. She had strong stats (35 ACT, 3.9 UW, 4.8W), some ECs but nothing mind-blowing (JV sports, clubs, volunteer work). She was also an NMF (which means Grinnell gives another $2K per year). We are a white middle-class family who qualified for financial aid as well, so she weighed some nice offers with the same EFC (Northwestern, Vasser, Oberlin, Macalester). But what can I say - she LOVED Grinnell.