@milgymfam Thanks, that makes sense. I did not know that. But with international students, there are different rules, perhaps. My sense is that all international students at Haverford are full pay, but I don’t know for sure. Haverford is very small and not as wealthy as the usual suspects that can give international students full rides. There are only about 30 schools that truly treat international students the same as low income US citizens and permanent residents. Some schools may have different financial aid rules for green card holders/permanent residents. These rules could change mid course, for OP, is another scary aspect of international financial aid. Also the OP needs to prove how they are paying to get into the USA at all, so if they don’t have money to live, they will not get a student visa. Also, country of origin will matter. So I bet Iran is off the table right now. I know Iranian students who got into MIT and denied visas in 1983. The political climate is bad right now for getting student visas from some countries.
I see international students on College Confidential and they believe its all going to be easy to pay for a US college. They are typically getting very bad advise from a college counselor in their home country. They are often told that American admissions offices are bleeding hearts and universites have big pocketbooks. It does work out for a very few, even at Haverford, but OP should ask more questions by calling Haverford directly and going over how much merit money is typically offered to international students.
I have the strong sense that Pomona is a bit better, but the Common Data set should be studied to find out how many international students attend each college, and then how many from the home country. All that data is available to OP.