Louisiana concentrates its postsecondary financial aid funding in merit-based aid programs, as opposed to need-based aid programs. This study illuminates the distribution of Louisiana's merit-based financial aid program, Louisiana's Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), to students from difference socioeconomic backgrounds by describing…

Assuming that an institution of higher education sees a need to devote resources to merit scholarships while continuing a strong need-based program, examines how the institution can do this, what impact it will have on enrollment, how scholarships should be marketed, and how much money will be required. (NB)

This chapter examines some of the salient features of merit-based student financial aid. The author explores the role of merit aid in college admission and how it is used in today's competitive market. (Contains 1 resource.)

Graduation rates for male athletes overall as well as men's football and basketball players lag behind those of male non-athletes at Division I colleges and universities. Scholarship athletes, however, are much more likely to be drawn from racial and ethnic groups with lower average graduation rates. After accounting for differences in racial…

This paper uses panel data for the 100 colleges and universities at which the largest number of National Merit Scholarship (NMS) winners enrolled in 2003 to test whether an expansion in the number of institutionally funded NMS winners at an institution is associated with a decline in the number of Pell Grant recipients at the institution. Our…

The Kentucky Education Excellence Scholarship (KEES) is a merit-based scholarship program intended to increase college access, long-term academic commitment, and retention of top students within the state. KEES uses a heavily graduated award structure and both high school grade point average and standardized test scores to establish award amounts.…

This article features Haitian Education & Leadership Program, Haiti's largest university-scholarship program, which provides merit scholarships to students in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes in the country's poorest areas. On average, the scholarships pay students $4,100, which covers tuition, textbooks, and school supplies,…

After passage of Proposition 209, the University of California began searching for race-neutral admissions criteria that would allow it to minimize drops in enrollment of under represented minorities. Concern for under represented minorities led to several changes in admissions policies, most notably the introduction of comprehensive or holistic…

Merit-based financial aid has been a growth industry in the United States over the past decade. Much media attention has focused on the use of merit aid by colleges and universities to try to attract academically talented students. In this article, the author argues that merit aid programs are the wrong tools for helping develop a skilled…

The arguments against merit scholarships are presented, and it is urged, instead that achievement be rewarded at the time and place of its occurrence, i.e., locally. (MSE)

This table lists the 62 colleges and universities enrolling the largest number of freshman Merit Scholars named in 1991. It shows the total number of Merit Scholarship winners and the number whose scholarships were paid for by the institution. (DB)

Describes how Rhodes scholarships and other prestigious awards, once dominated by the Ivy League, are going to other colleges. Winning institutions are employing special advisers and programs to prepare competitors and lure top students and big donors. (EV)

The 1990s ushered in a new age in state financial support for college students, with the rise of broad-based merit scholarships. Starting in the South and spreading from there, the premise of the "new generation" of programs was simple--states should be in the business of rewarding student performance, retaining the state's "best…

Subsidies to higher education in the United States have long been guided by the belief that policy should encourage college attendance. In principle, if not always in practice, policy has for some time sought to accomplish this by addressing college affordability. General subsidies that keep tuition at public institutions low are coupled with…

Discussion of the increasing price competition in higher education provides tables, graphs, and analyses of the higher education market and examines implications of offering attractive financial aid packages to better students. Finds price competition results in a greater concentration of talented students at high-resource schools and declining…