Columbia meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for international students admitted as first-year students and transfers pursuing their first degree.
http://cc-seas.financialaid.columbia.edu/how/aid/works
Columbia does not guarantee to meet the demonstrated financial need of dual degree engineering applicants. Sounds worse to me.
WUSTL has some limited need-based financial aid for international first-year applicants, but seems to offer none at all to international dual degree applicants. Also sounds worse to me.
I hate to be nitpicky about word choices like “as good as” (vs “as bad as”). I am concerned that your words are giving false hope to prospective international students. I hope nobody enrolls at a LAC with the intention of transferring to a 3-2 engineering program, unless they are prepared to pay the full cost of the engineering degree. Financial aid opportunities are very limited as is and have been getting progressively worse over the past decade. Whatever financial aid may be advertised right now may not be available in 3 years when current prospective students would be applying to engineering programs.