The Great US–Europe University Admissions Culture Shock
Believe it or not, Alex is going to be in high school next year. As we embark on this journey, we're doing what most US parents are doing at this stage: starting to think about the path to college.
At this point, Alex is interested in exploring colleges in both the US and Europe. Because of that, Mike and I are doing what we always do: completely over-researching everything until we have developed strong opinions about systems we knew nothing about three weeks ago.
Here are a few things that surprised us, in case they might be interesting to those who don’t have to navigate this dual system.
Extracurriculars vs. "super-curriculars"
First, universities in Europe (they are not called “college” here, unless it's a "college" inside a university) don't really care about extracurricular activities. What they do care about is what they call "super-curricular activities": things you do that are directly related to your intended major. Internships, academic competitions, research are great. These are things that signal you are genuinely moving toward your declared field. Sports, clubs, philanthropic activities? Given almost no weight, unless they're relevant to your major. (Model UN counts for political science. Competitive knitting does not count for pre-med. Probably.)
Picking a direction, it’s earlier than you'd think
In the US, students typically don't declare a major until they're actually applying to universities, or sometimes not until sophomore year of college. In Europe, it's much more common to start specializing in 10th grade, taking mostly courses related to your eventual field. Changing direction later is possible, but students are generally encouraged to pivot to something adjacent rather than make a full 180.
Meanwhile, I have nieces and nephews in the US who changed their major two or three times during university and it was, as they say, no big deal. Sometimes it meant an extra semester, but nobody panicked.
The GPA vs. IB score situation
Because European universities focus so heavily on the later years of secondary school, they mostly only consider grades from 11th and 12th grade. That actually lines up well with the International Baccalaureate system, since students aren't given a traditional GPA. Instead, at the end of the program they receive a single composite score (roughly in the 30–45 range) covering their 11th and 12th grade performance, based largely on exams and projects at the end of 12th grade. It's almost like AP tests for everything.
US schools, however, want a full GPA going back to 9th grade. This creates an awkward situation: some IB teachers have a habit of giving lower scores in the first semester of 9th and 10th grade to "encourage improvement" in the second semester. Pedagogically, sure, fine. But for a US university application, that first-semester grade just looks like... a lower grade. We've been advised that parents need to proactively meet with teachers and essentially say: "Please give my kid the grade they actually earned. The motivational sandbagging could hurt his university application."
So...high school. It's going to be a journey.
On a completely unrelated note, I came across a Dutch word yesterday: beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering. It means "professional liability insurance." I genuinely do not know how anyone gets through a spelling bee here. By the time the moderator finishes saying the word, you've forgotten the first four syllables.
The more I watch our "university" system change here in the US, the less impressed I've become with the whole game. Lots of money for many students leaving with a diploma that can't get them any job anywhere. AI isn't helping. Many still don't know how many states there are in the US, can't do basic math, and are barely qualified to work at Starbucks. Of course, that is not all, but far too many float through partying for 4 years and getting nothing. Hopefully the culture at the universities over there fosters a different kind of environment. I always looked at my degree as years spent exercising my brain....not learning to do exactly one trade. My education (though I never …
Europe takes the kid with one white-hot obsession and the paper trail to prove it. They want the early specialist. America takes the kid who can juggle interests, lead in multiple directions, and perform “curious and well-rounded” on command—even if they still don’t know what the heck they want. But what does it ladder up to? The US scales innovation better, but that edge comes from its capital markets and risk culture after college, not because its admissions game picks superior synthesizers. Seems like if you're the kid that is a fit for European specialization and can have fluency in the US job market, you get the best of all worlds.
Quite the busy job you guys have lined up. Glad you’re getting a head start on all of this. I’m sure in the end if all of this Alex will be on the right path moving forward.
That new word you came across has to be a Guinness world record for letters used. That word would take ALL of the letters a Srabble game has and then some more.