As a college degree is becoming a necessity for later earning a steady living, tuition rates are rising rapidly. Fortunately, the availability of merit-based scholarships is increasing, yet little research has been done on scholarship-awarding practices. Determining whether high school counselors accurately perceive awarding practices is an important step in determining how they can best advise students how to achieve these merit awards. This study compares the scholarship-awarding processes reported by 18 university scholarship personnel at selected four-year, public universities in seven Midwestern states with 122 high school counselors' perceptions of these processes. Participants completed a survey in which they rated statements and ranked factors regarding the scholarship-awarding process. Analysis of the data indicates that universities rely on academic factors statistically significantly more than on extracurricular involvement or other chance variables when awarding merit scholarships. The high school counselors have an accurate perception of the order in which these factors are considered; however, the elevated amount of importance attributed by counselors with the non-academic variables is misaligned with university practices. (Contains 8 tables.)