A.I. CounselorA.I. Counselor educates on how to stand out in high school, the college admissions process, and beyond.

Merit Scholarships: Not Just for Ivy League Schools! #shorts

18 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this short, A.I. Counselor tackles the common myth that merit scholarships are primarily an Ivy League benefit. The video explains that the most selective institutions—Ivies and similar schools—typically provide little or no merit aid because they have abundant high‑achieving applicants and do not need to compete for enrollment. Conversely, less selective colleges, which actively vie for strong students, use merit scholarships as a recruiting tool and therefore tend to award the largest merit awards. The overall message corrects the misconception and highlights how merit aid is strategically used by schools based on their selectivity.

Chapters

Myth number 6, merit scholarships are an Ivy League thing. Regular schools don't really do that. Here's the reality. It's actually almost the exact opposite. The most selective schools, the Ivies and their close cousins, generally offer little to no merit aid because they don't need to compete for students. They have more brilliant applicants than seats, full stop. Merit aid is a recruiting tool, and it's the less hyper-selective schools, the ones actively competing for strong students who tend to hand out the biggest merit scholarships.