[skinnymuch]

Majority of Americans don’t have a degree. Though yeah of the subset that do have degrees, most aren’t going to top ranked schools like you said.

[yardie]

A lot of it comes down to familiarity. Most French companies know of Ivies, Stanford, and MIT. Most Americans couldn’t tell you of a French university beyond La Sorbonne (Paris IV).

In my time there I learned a lot about the difference between university and grand écoles.