<p>There’s a subtle, but important error in gibby’s information. His list is a list of colleges that commit to provide full financial aid to international students AND that say they do not take the need for aid into account in making admission decisions for international students. That combination is indeed rare, and limited to those institutions. (I think that’s accurate.)</p>
<p>However, there are a number of other colleges that take financial need into account in admitting international students, but that commit to provide full aid to the international students they admit. That would include a number of colleges of interest to the OP – places like Penn, Columbia, Brown, Chicago, Stanford, Caltech. At these colleges, admission is super-competitive for an international applicant seeking full aid, but if the applicant is admitted he will receive full aid, at least as calculated by the college.</p>
<p>Then there are colleges that do not promise to meet full need, and that do take need into account, but that nonetheless do award full scholarships to a small number of international students each year. These will tend to be colleges with less powerful “brand names” than the ones already discussed, but they still provide great opportunity for the students who win their scholarships.</p>