Originally Posted by Bostonian
I'd like to see more merit aid, with for example National Merit scholarships being larger than $2500 http://www.nationalmerit.org/faq_scholarship.php . But that's not politically correct, because merit as defined by grades and especially test scores is positively correlated with SES. Too much of it goes to students who don't "need" it, according to a FAFSA calculation or something similar.

Things must have changed. I seem to recall that at least some National Merit Scholars used to get more substantial awards.