Scholarships for Academics vs. Athletics or other extra-curricular activities

Am I wrong here, but it seems like getting scholarship money for being smart is much more difficult than it is for being an athlete or musical or some other extra-curricular area where colleges give out scholarship money. My daughter is a straight "A" student, at or near the top of her class, got a 34/36 on the ACT, yet is struggling to get decent scholarship offers from colleges. She is still applying for scholarships and such, but it sure seems like schools are willing to give "full rides" to an athlete or someone in music or arts, but will only give out small scholarships based on pure academics.

It just seems like there is more of a reward for being an A/B student and not necessarily taking all the AP or Honors classes, but then focus strong on a sport, than there is for someone who plays a sport, but focuses mainly on taking the toughest high school classes, and being the best in that area.

It seems like the schools have it wrong.

Any comments here?