Matthew Yglesias [sic], quoting related research (see the source paper here) claims that a disproportionate amount of scholarships go to non-hispanic, caucasian students in the US. He also says that this has more to do with universities trying to produce more successful graduates: “It turns out to be more cost-effective to invest in recruiting better inputs. And since high school seniors from high socioeconomic status families tend to already be better-prepared for college than kids from low-socioeconomic status families, that means that financial aid resources naturally flow to the high-socioeconomic status students.”
The conclusion from both the research paper and Yglesias both seem to be that merit-based scholarships go to the better off.
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