Should all scholarships be based solely on merit?

Awarding scholarships based on merit is the only fair way to hand these out. Students know what most be objectively achieved to receive the award, removing politics and subjectivity from the decision making.

Factoring solely academic achievement in awarding scholarships disregards many factors that help identify the most valuable candidates for school. Community involvement, experience outside the classroom, etc, are some of the non-merit factors that should be considered when determining which are the candidates who should receive a scholarship.

Scholarships should be used to help educate our community. Many times the students with the highest grades come from the most affluent backgrounds thanks to their access to tutors, top schools, engaged parents, etc. Therefore, by making scholarship's merit based only we will be default be giving them to those students who least need them.

A classroom that is homogenous doesn't challenge students the way a diverse one does. Our backgrounds are fundamental to how we see the world and should be taken into account alongside grades. The dynamics of a fellow student challenging one's world view or thought process is very different from a professor's.