Marketing. And the fact that they are likely better than the universities most people would be exposed to in their home countries anyways, where the competition

Marketing. And the fact that they are likely better than the universities most people would be exposed to in their home countries anyways, where the competition to get into the few decent schools is far more fierce. The not so good universities spend a ton of money on marketing. And some very good universities do too. The American education brand was strong a decade ago, so any American university would be considered good. Further, people outside the US are often surprised by how many scams are prevalent in the US. The general belief used to be that the US was a largely sensible country where people did things the right way.