Well it's funny that you consider merit-based scholarships unfair when they are based on merit--at least from the school's perspective. Your view of where your tuition dollars go is entirely up to you, but maybe instead of thinking you're subsidizing their tuition, maybe think of it as a cost for being less talented lol
And your point on need based making no sense when others have to borrow full COA makes absolutely no sense. Need based is not based on whether your parents want to pay for your tuition, it's whether they can. If it were the former, no parent would pay for their kid's tuition and the financial aid would be taken from those that actually need it. You think just because someone who has to take full COA loans because their parents don't want to pay for their tuition is on the same financial playing field as someone with a family EFC of 0? The truly in need student has no safety net, sometimes has to help their parents financially, and most likely had a childhood of less privilege. Financial aid is there to level the playing field. Just because they would both have to borrow full COA does not mean it is an even level field, and that we should not try to right the imbalance. But yeah, let's split the financial aid evenly for every student, effectively bringing down tuition for everyone. Rich Henry gets a cheaper education which won't matter because he'll most likely go into ortho because of his parents connections, while he drives off to the sunset in his BMW that daddy bought while waiting for that inheritance. While Edward grew up poor, is working hard to bring his family out of poverty, and is laden in debt after graduation.
I get that you're stressed from application season, but please have some common sense.
One more thing. Your point on the funds being fungible as though it were a pool that the University can spend to do whatever is wrong. Some donors explicitly donate for financial aid to low income students. I'm a donor and I don't want my money to go to some rich kid.
With all due respect, I did not say merit scholarships were unfair. I merely said I did not necessarily want to subsidize those receiving them while I am not.
As far as need based grants, yes, while I fully understand why schools offer them, I am not sure they are "fair" based on whether parents are able or willing to pay, since we can all service loans, whether we are going into public service or plastic surgery. We are all independent adults.
I get that schools need a way to allocate limited resources, and this is how they choose to do it. If you want to subsidize the education of future physicians who come from modest means, but have the same ability to borrow against future income as a "rich" student whose parents don't want to pay, it is certainly your prerogative to do so. As someone who comes from not so modest means, yet will still be fully financing his education on his own, I'm not as interested in borrowing to subsidize my future classmates as you would apparently have me be.
Moreover, regardless of what you think about how you direct your donations to be spent, money really, really, really is fungible. The money you direct to financial aid for low income students just frees up resources for other priorities, like paying staff.
At the end of the day, every enterprise, including medical schools, has a budget, with a pool of money to draw on, and a set of expenses to pay. Money is money is money. It's fungible, regardless of whether or not you think your money is separate and special. It isn't. It gets deposited into an account and spent along with all their other money, including the money people like me borrow from the government and send to them as tuition and fees.
Your ability to designate an allocation is to motivate you to make the donation. It doesn't increase their budget for need based financial aid. It merely replaces other money that would have been used for that purpose.
