【正文】 ecision three years ago. Now, Hamilton College in Clinton, ., says it will phase out merit scholarships altogether. No current meritaid recipients will lose their scholarships, but needbased aid alone will be awarded beginning with students entering in fall 2022. Not all colleges offer merit aid。 World Report’s ranking of the best liberal arts colleges, from 25 to 17. Merit aid, which benefited about 75 students a year, or about 4% of its student body, at a cost of about $ 1 million a year, “served us well,” Inzer says, but “to be discounting the price for families that don’t need financial aid doesn’t feel right any more.” Needbased aid remains by far the largest share of all student aid, which includes state, federal and institutional grants. But merit aid, offered primarily by schools and states, is growing faster, both overall and at the institutional level. Between 199596 and 202204, institutional merit aid alone increased 212%, pared with 47% for needbased grants. At least 15 states also offer merit aid, typically in a bid to enroll top students in the state’s public institutions. But in recent years, a growing chorus(異口同聲 )of critics has begun pressuring schools to drop the practice. Recent decisions by Hamilton and others may be “a sign that people are starting to realize that there’s this destructive petition going on,” says Baum, coauthor of a recent College Report that raises concerns about the role of institutional aid not based on need. David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, says many of his schools would like to reduce their merit aid but fear that in doing so, they would lose top students to their petitors. “No one can take onesided action,” says Laird, who is exploring whether to seek an exemption(豁免 )from federal antitrust laws so member colleges can discuss how they could 1 0 jointly reduce merit aid, “This is a merrygoround that’s going very fast, and none of the institutions believe they can sustain the risks of trying to break away by themselves.” A plicating factor is that merit aid has bee so popular with middleine families, who don’t qualify for needbased aid, that many have e to depend on it. And, as tuitions continue to increase, the line between merit and need blurs. That’s one reason Allegheny College doesn’t plan to drop merit aid entirely. “We still believe in rewarding superior achievements and know that these top students truly value the scholarship,” says Scott Friedhoff, Allegheny’s vice president for enrollment. Emory University in Atlanta, which boasts a $ billion endowment(捐贈 ), meanwhile, is taking another approach. This year, it announced it would eliminate loans for needy students and cap them for middleine families. At the same time, it would expand its 28yearold merit program. “Yeah, we’re playing the merit game,” acknowledges Tom Lancaster, associate dean for undergraduate education. But it has its strong point, too, he says. “The fact of the matter is, it’s not just about the lowestine people. It’s the average American middleclass family who’s being priced out of the market.” *A few words about meritbased aid: Meritbased aid is aid offered to students who achieve excellence in a given area, and is generally known as academic, athletic and artistic merit scholarships. Academic merit scholarships are based on students’ grades, GPA and overall academic performance during high school. They are typically meant for students going straight to college right after high school. However, there are scholarships for current college students with exceptional grades as well. These merit scholarships usually help students pay tuition bills, and they can be renewed each year as long as the recipients continue to qualify. In some cases, students may need to be remended by their school or a teacher as part of the qualification process. Athletic merit scholarships are meant for students that excel(突出 )in sports of any kind, from football to track and field events. Remendation for these scholarships is required, since exceptional athletic performance has to be recognized by a coach or a referee(裁判 ). Applicants need to send in a tape containing their best performance. Artistic merit scholarships require that applicants excel in a given artistic area. This generally includes any creative field such as art, design, fashion, music, dance or writing. Applying for artistic merit scholarships usually requires that students submit a portfolio(選1 0 輯 )of some sort, whether that includes a collection of artwork, a recording of a musical performance or a video of them dancing. 1. With more and more lowine students pursuing higher education, a number of colleges are ________. A) offering students more meritbased aid B) revising their financial aid policies C) increasing the amount of financial aid D) changing their admission processes 2. What did Allegheny College in Meadville do three years ago? A) It tried to implement a novel financial aid program. B) It added $ million to its needbased aid program. C) It phased out its meritbased scholarships altogether. D) It cuts its meritbased aid to help the needy students. 3. The chief purpose of rankingsconscious colleges in offering merit aid is to ______. A) improve teaching quality B) boost their enrollments C) attract good students D) increase their revenues 4. Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid at Hamilton, believes ______. A) it doesn’t pay to spend $ 1 million a year to raise its ranking B) it gives students motivation to award academic achievements C) it’s illogical to use so much money on only 4% of its students D) it’s not right to give aid to those who can afford the tuition 5. In recent years, meritbased aid has increased mu