Specifically talking about internationals as I am one who is also looking for aid…
I don’t even have any hope even though I have high stats and good enough ECs and essays because of how weirdly easy it was to apply here.
The same way every other college accepts students… by looking at the materials in the application and choosing the ones they think will fit best at the college (stats and EC wise). Pretty sure they also require the personal statement like most other college, so it’s not really no essay. The acceptance rate is below 20%, so it’s a very difficult to get in.
I’ve wondered about some colleges perhaps making it easier to apply to increase the number of applications simply to accept pretty much who they would have anyways but make the % accepted lower to raise the place on college rankings that use that as a metric for grading colleges.