It would be good to get some feedback about how to improve and where you went wrong. It's pretty hard dealing with a generic rejection after flying for 14 hours to the other side of the world for an interview! If the rejection is because of technical skill, then I think they could figure that out from a few more phone interviews (although I guess a free trip to the US isn't too bad).
I don't think it's because of the university though. One of my friends from NZ got a job out there and he was from my university, which doesn't have a particularly high reputation for computer science. I think he just knew how to nail the technical questions under pressure, and is more interested in algorithms and low level stuff than me, perhaps.