Shift from Need-based Aid to Merit-based Aid
Recently, a widespread shift from need-based financial aid to merit-based aid has taken place in our nation's universities and colleges. As need-based aid rose 41 percent nationally during the 1990s, merit aid spiked more than 200 percent, according to the National Association of State Financial Aid Administrators.

Since 1993, the number of wealthy students (top quarter of incomes) receiving aid at private colleges has grown at more than five times the rate of the number of needy students (bottom quarter of incomes). As a result, many impoverished families now receive less financial aid than the most privileged students.

Due to the gap in education quality - higher scores, more test preparation, availability of advanced placement classes - students from wealthier school districts are capturing merit scholarships at a disproportionate rate while their counterparts from lower income school districts are left to compete for a dwindling amount of need-based financial aid. The reasons for and affects of this shift have been debated across the country as the issue has attracted an increasing amount of media attention. Some have cited the obsession with college rankings as an underlying cause, others the intensifying competition for wealthy students who may be expected to boost alumni giving in the future.

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