That sounds like fraud.
Merit money is out there, but you have to "merit" it. A 3.7 for Syracuse is not going to get you there. You really need to be bringing something to the community to get the money. This could be great academics, athletics (i.e., recruited athlete), artist, etc., or sometimes you just fit a demographic need. At RPI, I assume just being female is big for admission. If merit's the goal, you have to recalibrate the type of school you want to go to. A 3.7 makes you really attractive at a lot of schools - hence more likely to obtain merit aid. At a school where you are not a guaranteed admission, merit will be almost nonexistent for you.
I suspect my child will be in the same boat as Guiness's - pretty good (3.7-3.8 out of 4.0), not great student. Parents well enough off to not qualify for financial aid, but not well enough off to be able to absorb $70k+ per year. The only thing demographically he has going for him is that he is bi-racial (Caucasian and Asian). That will help him at a lot of schools, but will actually also hurt him at some.