Search for “Common Data Set” in a college website search bar or with the school name in a search engine. In the document that appears, look for the sections titled “Number of Enrolled Students Receiving Aid” and “Number of Enrolled Students Receiving Non-Need-Based Bursaries and Grants”. The more students who have received non-need-based aid, i.e. merit-based aid, the more likely you will be eligible if you qualify.

In 2019-2020, for example, New York University provided merit aid to 270 full-time freshmen with no financial need (out of a total of 6,160 full-time freshmen). The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, on the other hand, provided merit assistance to 1,783 full-time freshmen without financial need, out of a total of 6,632 full-time freshmen.

Colleges that are competing for the same students may be willing to increase their merit aid offers. Say your heart is on a school that awarded you an annual $ 10,000 merit scholarship in your financial aid award letter in recognition of your good grades. But a competing school – a school that attracts students with similar test scores and scores, and has roughly the same reputation and level of admissions selectivity – gave you $ 20,000.