My oldest son tops his class easily in cognition. But he is also smart emough to not invest more energy in school than necessary. He has lots of pet projects (constructing a fighting vest, collecting a survival kit, organizing a fly market, exploring the suburb, planning his birthday) which don’t gain him merit in school but from which he also learns a lot.
So whether he will merit scholarships to college depends a lot on whether he specializes in signalling ability or in actual ability. And currently I’d bet on the latter (which I guess will earlier or later earn him merit anyway).
Of course in-country has the advantage of being free :) But there are a few free or near-free options within the EU for german passport holders. And there’s also the possibility of winning a scholarship.
My oldest son tops his class easily in cognition. But he is also smart emough to not invest more energy in school than necessary. He has lots of pet projects (constructing a fighting vest, collecting a survival kit, organizing a fly market, exploring the suburb, planning his birthday) which don’t gain him merit in school but from which he also learns a lot. So whether he will merit scholarships to college depends a lot on whether he specializes in signalling ability or in actual ability. And currently I’d bet on the latter (which I guess will earlier or later earn him merit anyway).
If he gets high enough SAT scores it should compensate for the lack of silly extracurricular stuff...
Here in Germany admission to university still depends on grades.
Not if he goes to university out of the country.
Noted. A possibility that will be considerd in due time.
Of course in-country has the advantage of being free :) But there are a few free or near-free options within the EU for german passport holders. And there’s also the possibility of winning a scholarship.