Actually it appears like you misunderstood me, because what you just said proves what I wrote, which is that there are exceptions like the MIT. However, I know enough Americans personally to know that most universities aren't at this level.

EDIT: Sorry, I just reread it. I really didn't point out well, that I consider the MIT or Berkeley an exception, but saying that they are good university and doubting anyone here would say they are not doing a great job I falsely amused that would be clear. Yep, the MIT and Berkeley are great university and like a lot of other people I'd love to go there, but that's not what I was talking about and that's what I wanted to make clear mentioning them.

But also think about why elite universities have such a percentage of foreigners.

Do you know the percentages of other universities? I am curious, because when I think about the university I study at, which currently is in a huge mess, because a governmental coalition we had for two periods (for the first time in history) changed the laws regarding its financial support in a way that it was against the constitution and therefor was killed off. Since nobody acted upon this on time and there are now no appropriate laws and most universities are struggling with big debts (for the first time). Still universities here are free, still the universities here are pioneering in many fields, winning international awards, etc. If the financial situation doesn't change (the laws aren't fixed in what way ever) this situation is going to change, but despite strong restrictions 22.57% (just checked on this year) of the students here are from other countries. This is for computer science on one of the worse universities here (I for myself am thinking about going to another state for a better one), which isn't really the best field. Most people come here to study medicine here. That's a famous field here. Lots of international politicians come here for health related stuff, so I am sure the numbers there would be different. They are also the ones that are always the first in transplanting various organs, world records when it comes to the number of them, etc.

What I want to say is that the fact that you have one or two very famous universities in the field of technology doesn't say your system is good. I can study here too, research whatever I want, pioneering in various areas, get everything I need, still I know very well how messed up our system is (and was for at least a decade now). So I really don't think that the comment about everyone going to the US is true, just because you have 23% Europeans at your elite university. The reason by the way could also be that they have rich parents coming from Europe, because as a matter of fact forty(!) percent of Ph.D. scientists working in the United States were born abroad[1].

See, I don't want to talk bad the educational system in the US, but when a lot of US American citizen go to Cuba, which is basically the enemy of the united states, has huge financial problems, which due to a large part are because of economical sanctions that would even mean the end for a country like Germany then saying the US educational system appears to just be wrong (also see PISA). This doesn't mean the US doesn't have some damn fine universities like MIT, Berkeley, etc. or that many European countries are doing so much better (I explained how really messed up the university I am going to is - even if there are many that are off worse), but if you look to Scandinavia or Asia then things could be _way_ better.

[1] http://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.pdf