It's notable, however, that on any ranking of the world's top universities you'll find the US absolutely dominant, holding over half of the top one hundred, two

It's notable, however, that on any ranking of the world's top universities you'll find the US absolutely dominant, holding over half of the top one hundred, two hundred, whatever... spots. This suggests there must be something going right. And having spent time at various universities in various different countries I gotta tell you that the existence of a lot more money floating around the average US university certainly helps a lot.