Thanks to you all for verifying the initial reports.

It has never been easy to rank anything other than a pure physical contest where someone comes in first. And now that isn't easy with the steroid abuse scandals etc. However, it does make my point in a general way; that US universities are actually doing an excellent job of educating the leaders of tomorrow (comments of the rich people buying their way through to the contrary). Even if the foreign students are coming here to get an education, it is usually in a specialty not offered anywhere else.

For example, the West Virginia University is not particularly noted for most of its programs, but when I was attending my Master's classes in Safety and Environment Management through the school of Engineering and Mineral Sciences, I noticed three different kinds of people attending the school. The School deals mostly with Mineral extraction, with the WV Bubbas and folks from Montana etc. attending the Mining school programs, the Arabs, Nigerians and Texans attending the Oil programs, and the Sierra Club types attending the Safety and Environmental classes with me. While the University itself was insular in most of its programs, this school was a virtual UN of the mineral extraction and recovery process, and supports many of the other programs at the University. And they weren't going to England, French or Germany to get their credentials. I don't think any of the graduates were concentrating on being "well-rounded" and with the exception of the Arabs, none of them appeared "well-heeled", yet I do believe that their experiences there bode well for the US in the future. Even if you want to try and hate the Americans later in life, you will still remember the folks you went to school with.