In my opinion: Not everyone (prospective Nepali student) is smart (or resourceful) enough to go to the big-name schools. There are thousands of US schools that may NOT have enough of those 3 factors you mentioned. Of course, WSU is one of those. Yet, they are good enough for hundreds of thousands of students--both American and foreign. Since one can't attend all the schools at a time, one needs to find only one. Friends, cost, ads, on/off-campus jobs may be possible factors in decision making. I don't think it would be fair to compare a Harvard graduate with a WSU graduate. If you ask me, I graduated from WSU, got a job in Wichita, and am happy. To me that's all what matters.