Top universities in Europe (and Canada) are free or almost free

[DFW]

28. US colleges don't rely only on that for admission

They interview you, check out the person behind the application.

In Germany, you are your GPA. It determines if you get a spot right away, a year or two down the road, or "forget about it." Since German universities are one trick pony schools, your shot at getting to study your chosen field is literally determined by your GPA. They even have a cutoff number for each chosen line of study. Very high for medicine, lower for academia, in between for chemistry or biology or physics. In the USA, both in my experience and in those of my daughters a generation later, the person applying was also taken into the equation. Maturity, motivation, outside interests, the sort of thing admissions committees are there for. In Germany, the admissions committee is a computer or a chart.