Along similar lines, does it help at all if you are an international student attending an American university, in the sense that your recommenders would be better known, or that there would be fewer questions about your ability to participate in an English-speaking program, or even that adcoms would have a better feel for the difficulty of your course load (presuming a relatively well-known American university)?
Hey cyberwulf, I'm also an international student and I'm wondering how attending a US institution for my undergrad degree affects my chances of admission -- does it improve it all, or is the competitiveness for international applicants more about limited funding?