@PurpleTitan, yes I was at a Grande Ecole (Normale Sup) but I’ve met many accomplished graduates of “regular” French universities. (Also, you should know, that Normaliens, as they call Normale Sup students, actually get their degree at the University of Paris. The Ecole offers them additional support, lectures and community. But their classes are right along with the “regular” kids at the Sorbonne, etc.)
I know MYOS (whom I respect) has reservations about it, however it’s very hard for me to believe that the world’s 6th largest economy and a country that takes education as seriously as France wouldn’t have good universities except for a handful of elites. It’s true that it’s a different experience, it’s true that many classes are held in dilapidated buildings and they tend to be lecture style courses, that the campuses (if they even exist) aren’t nearly as posh as in the US. But the level of education in France remains high, and you will find French grads in many of the world’s top graduate programs.
To go deeply into debt to attend an American university – and increasingly smaller odds of working in the US making these wonderful fabled salaries – when you’ve got the inexpensive French system within reach – that seems to me to be a dubious decision.