While the fees for the said universities may be an advantage for Americans use to paying big dollars for a university education and some of those locations are tourist meccas, they are not necessarily the easiest universities to gain entry to. Many of those universities are very competative. Most of them would require the International Baccalaureate examinations for entry and Americans who are use to multiple-choice SATs would find the former a lot of work. Related to that are the fact that there are many local students competing for places at those universities. Americans are also not the only ones who may want to go overseas for university and some host countries offer scholarships to third world students, e.g. China gives scholarships to many African countries students. Taking all this into account, any alloted places for overseas students by the better universities will therefore also be heavily subscribed.

So if the writer purpose is to let us know there are good schools overseas then this is article is useful. But there are no examples of students not getting in to there top choice in the US but yet getting into one of these top school overseas.

Without even anecdotal evidence this article fails to make its case.

Anyone know if examples that could be cited?

The problem is that these big schools take students from overseas and pass up students from America because foreign students pay more for tuition. It is a broken system that hurts the U.S. while helping other countries. They come here, get the best education, go back home and take with them a superior education than our kids are receiving at the middle-tier U.S. universities. So in turn America becomes filled with people who did not receive the best possible education while countries like China are being filled with students with top notch educations. From a purely strategic standpoint the U.S. should be keeping the best doctors, lawyers, chiropractors, teachers, scientists, etc. in their own country.

“@eepolitecnica USP em lista de ótimas unis fora dos EUA bit.ly/wpqMSv” USP's successful soccer team? News to me @FP_Magazine #fail

Usp has never had a successful soccer team. We invented futsal? Must be kidding.

Was the rest of the article also invented, as opposed to researched?

I don't know exactly how the writer got to this list, but to enter the University of Sao Paulo you have to go through an entrance exam fully in Portuguese - similar to an SAT - and prove being fluent in the language, and it's not an easy exam at all.
Not all the students there are "jocks", and much of the political manifests in the country come from there. Counting that the country now has the 6th most powerful economy in the world, I guess we have some smart people there, right? Have you cited the amount of academic research that comes from there and that most students there are fluent in English and other languages?
Please don't diminish the value of that university and of the students from there - I say this being a student of the University of Sao Paulo going through an exchange program here in the United States myself. My Brazilian professors are brilliant and I've seen many of them teaching here in the United States and in different parts of the world.
The American universities are great, yes... but don't try to diminish the value of other institutions just because they're not "American". That's extremely disrespectful to internationals who love and respect your country and that just want the same respect in return.

Graduated from Bombay holly cow dung tech institute

come to America to get all high tech jobs at 1/3 wages,

sold a straw hut in Bombay for 1000 rupee,

buy the foreclosed house in US, trading one ruppe for 1000 dollars, before dollars tank further thanks to Fed QE 3/4/5/ ---------

all problems solved

you can never blame India for supressing their currency in relation to dollars

It clearly was an attempt to diminish Brazilians in general. As a Brazilian American, I can relate to both sides of the coin, sometimes having to side the Brazilians and sometimes the Americans, but most often trying to balance the differences of both cultures. A great statement by THE-LISTNER, “This doesn’t help America”, in fact that causes more damage, fueling the anti-American sentiment. America is falling behind, losing the lead of the most important issues, is because we think we have reached perfection as people. “You will stop improving yourself, when you think you have reached perfection” and this is very true. For this, we have to blame our own government, because the mantra is “We are the greatest nation in the world or Americans are the greatest people in the world”, this sounds so immature, it sounds very much like when parents try to give a boost to their teenager’s low self-esteem.
Our government has not been able to see the damaging side of statements and teaching strategies like these, that is so wrong and we are seeing the damage this creates, for some times, this prompts some ridiculous Americans to go abroad, posing themselves as being better them anyone (in fact they are not, these are crack, cocaine pot addicted) simply because they are Americans and that endangers the path for wonderful Americans, who otherwise do not think and/or behave that way. This woman Lois Parshley, indeed do not speak for the majority of Americans and she should be ashamed of herself, she should be disciplined by whoever is above her or he/her think the same way? I ask my fellow Brazilians, do not generalize Americans because of ridiculous statements like this, this is a nation of 310 million people and like this women are only a small fraction. Muito obrigado.

What a sad, inaccurate article. I attended USP for 5 years and I have never heard anything about the supposed successful soccer team. Where on earth did the writer of this article get this information? Besides that, what does "futebol de salão" have to do with USP? I can assure the readers that the "jock" is far from being the typical USP student. Anyone with access to Google can easily find out that USP is the best Latin American university. Its entrance examination is more difficult and competitive than most American universities ones. I must say I felt offended by this article, specially in light of the fact that I have always considered the FP Magazine a reliable source of information and had a great deal of respect to this publication. As far as I could tell from the comments, I was not the only one who felt this way. Presenting those universities as alternatives to American students who were not prepared enough to get into an American university is plain derogatory.

I believe the best thing you can do is fire Lois Parshley for being a total imbecile! I am surprises Lois even knows thare are universities outside the USA
Jock is defined as "a muscular, but not very smart guy, and cannot carry a conversation on any topic other than one relating to sports or exercise"
Sao Paulo never invented Futebol de Salao, Sao Paulo University does not encourage athletes to become students (rather the opposite). So you will probably find 10 NERDS to every JOCK in Sao Paulo Univ.. Additionally Lois Parshley is clearly schizophrenic because she defines the place as great for morons then goes on to say "Its 86,000 students are best known for their skilled research -- comprising 45 percent of all research published in Brazil Incidentally (because I am sure Lois doesnot know this either) Brazilian research is 50% of all research published in Latin America and 15th in the world.
Someone felt offended by this piece of nonsense. It is not offensive. it is simply ridiculous! You should do penance for allowing it! Get lost Foreign Affairs

WHAT A LOAD OF BULL!

Some of the universities listed in here are easily the most competitive institutions to be admitted, in their respective nations or even regions.

Just because they're not American, or school fees are cheaper, means they're easier to get into? I detect implicit snobbery here.

If you can't, as an American, get into Uni of Chicago and the likes, what makes you think you can get into these top-ranked schools? (Assuming of course these institutions don't have some form of foreign students quota to milk foreign students of their cash).