America has long had abundant capacity in its colleges and universities, which have increasingly welcomed those from countries where quality higher education is a scarce resource. This coincided nicely with America's pivotal role in the growing globalization of the world's economy. An American degree has become a valuable rite of passage for an aspiring elite in business, government and science and technology. International students have emerged as the largest, perhaps most overlooked, minority on many college campuses. This article looks at the internationalization of American higher education.