This makes me feel at least slightly better. I attended a top-100-but-definitely-not-top-10-or-even-top-20 private university in the early 2000s and I'm quite s

This makes me feel at least slightly better. I attended a top-100-but-definitely-not-top-10-or-even-top-20 private university in the early 2000s and I'm quite sure my family paid very close to full sticker. I don't recall qualifying for any merit scholarship. I had and have merits, but excellent grades in high school were not among them :)