what's most important for merit scholarships?

[Columbia_Student]

<p>I found something similar from the Carleton thread. See post #26</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/739892-will-high-financial-need-hurt-my-chances-carleton-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carleton-college/739892-will-high-financial-need-hurt-my-chances-carleton-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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“What need-blind admissions actually means is that a type of firewall exists between admissions and the financial aid office through which information does not flow.** Yet, in the real world of college admissions, there are other ways that a need-blind college can figure out if the applicant will need aid. On every application there are questions that the student must answer that reveals the family’s economic circumstances. When both parents are ivy league graduates, and one is a partner in a white-shoe law firm, while the other is a partner in a top consulting firm, the sibling is currently attending a prestigious private university, and the high school is located in an affluent zip code, it is not difficult to conclude that if admitted, this applicant will be a “full-pay.” Add to this mix, a student who writes about his summer community service work in Guatemala that cost his family eight thousand dollars, it becomes even more obvious that the family can afford the tuition, room and board at the college to which he/she applied.”**

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