I went through a Rand phase when I was in my 20s, so I can honestly tell you that I've read most of her books. I know that she practically claimed to be an Aristotle scholar. But in her books, there is very little evidence to support that claim.
I will, however, give her credit for introducing me to metaphysics, Aristotle, and even Aquinas.
For anyone who's interested in Aristotle or Aquinas' synthesis of Aristotelianism and Christian theology, I cannot recommend highly enough this little website.
It's the most concise and powerful introduction to Aristotelian/Scholastic thinking that I've found. It certainly helped me to clarify my own thinking.
I studied philosophy in college too, and went through an Objectivist phase in my late teens and 20s, as seems a common experience for many. The interesting thing about Rand's work for me is that as time goes by, I see increasing evidence that she was fundamentally right about the nature of man and the economic principles that must obtain for a society to be successful and free. Thanks for the website link. I've added it to the list of places I'd like to go for a while to escape the sturm und drang of politics.