The foreign school systems I'm familiar with separate the students by their abilities/test scores starting between elementary and junior high. The truly "elite" ones do it before pre-school by testing both the students and the mothers. It's not too difficult to predict who will and who won't have a shot at making it into a university right then and there.
The first separation happens at the transition from primary to secondary school, so halfway junior high by the American count - then one needs to choose a secondary school, obviously, and one of several tracks that may or may not exist in a given school. If you choose for a more technical or vocational-oriented track there, your odds of ending up in university grow rather small, even if it's technicallly possible to do it.
So the list of countries using the euro will grow longer, not shorter... Estonia to join in 2011
- 12/05/2010 10:51:37 PM
1082 Views
Sounds like a winner
- 12/05/2010 11:07:38 PM
701 Views
You Americans should like Estonia - they're rather neoliberal that way.
- 12/05/2010 11:18:30 PM
897 Views
I liked the remark one Estonian bankofficial made
- 12/05/2010 11:38:26 PM
660 Views
I do sometimes wish more Belgians would understand that.
- 12/05/2010 11:52:41 PM
595 Views
Re: I do sometimes wish more Belgians would understand that.
- 13/05/2010 12:05:03 AM
602 Views
That would be more convincing if universities promoted more social mobility.
- 13/05/2010 12:11:37 AM
732 Views
Social attitudes take a very long time to change.
- 13/05/2010 12:28:09 AM
750 Views
We have need-based scholarships. We could extend them.
- 13/05/2010 12:38:31 AM
626 Views
I guess it depends on exactly what the fees are.
- 13/05/2010 11:06:37 AM
716 Views
They're low. Too low. 
- 13/05/2010 12:12:29 PM
742 Views
- 13/05/2010 12:12:29 PM
742 Views
American universities do have entrance exams. Sort of. 
- 13/05/2010 02:17:13 PM
737 Views
- 13/05/2010 02:17:13 PM
737 Views
Those are really too lame to count.
- 13/05/2010 02:21:23 PM
784 Views
meh. Most degrees are useless anyway.
- 13/05/2010 01:14:54 AM
624 Views
That could be fixed if there weren't such stigma attached to vocational schools.
- 13/05/2010 02:18:40 AM
647 Views
Re: That would be more convincing if universities promoted more social mobility.
- 13/05/2010 08:08:16 PM
708 Views
Re: That would be more convincing if universities promoted more social mobility.
- 14/05/2010 11:48:22 AM
711 Views
Is it as late as university? Or is it a good bit earlier? EDIT: Nevermind. Answered elsewhere.
- 14/05/2010 05:36:50 PM
811 Views
Oh, it's a lot earlier.
- 14/05/2010 06:03:51 PM
765 Views
Re: Is it as late as university? Or is it a good bit earlier? EDIT: Nevermind. Answered elsewhere.
- 14/05/2010 07:57:32 PM
645 Views
Re: That would be more convincing if universities promoted more social mobility.
- 14/05/2010 08:02:58 PM
764 Views
naw most of them are getting degrees in liberal arts because they like to read book more then work *NM*
- 13/05/2010 02:01:59 PM
260 Views
*NM*
- 13/05/2010 02:01:59 PM
260 Views
Surely Sweden can say, or could have said, that they wouldn't join till they damn well felt like it?
- 12/05/2010 11:39:57 PM
654 Views
Apparently Denmark only got the opt-out after rejecting the Maastricht treaty.
- 12/05/2010 11:47:00 PM
694 Views
Good point: it seems to me no-one cares about being Belgian, only Flemish or Walloon .
- 12/05/2010 11:51:27 PM
565 Views
.
- 12/05/2010 11:51:27 PM
565 Views
It's slightly more subtle than that.
- 13/05/2010 12:00:29 AM
732 Views
What do you think about this suggestion?
- 13/05/2010 12:09:02 AM
716 Views
That has been suggested by many, yeah.
- 13/05/2010 12:28:24 AM
729 Views
But before you make a decision like that...
- 13/05/2010 08:36:07 AM
716 Views
They can export him to another country which needs a king. Wouldn't be the first time.
- 13/05/2010 10:57:59 AM
649 Views
Hmm, a pan-European entity getting too big and splitting into Eastern and Western administrations...
- 13/05/2010 11:09:51 AM
627 Views
There is one answer to most of those questions
- 12/05/2010 11:49:46 PM
593 Views
I love that the rest of you have the euro.
- 12/05/2010 11:53:10 PM
584 Views
*waits for the Pound to drop and the UK begging for the euro* *NM*
- 12/05/2010 11:56:25 PM
339 Views
*NM*
- 12/05/2010 11:56:25 PM
339 Views
That would be the worst time to do it.
- 13/05/2010 12:05:32 AM
684 Views
*NM*
I think on the balance, that's probably better than the opposite, but yeah, neither is ideal. *NM*
- 13/05/2010 12:14:23 AM
309 Views
WOW WHEN DID THE UK CHANGE THEIR COINS 
- 13/05/2010 12:10:41 AM
681 Views
- 13/05/2010 12:10:41 AM
681 Views
2008, apparently. Though I don't think we actually saw them until 2009.
- 13/05/2010 12:17:46 AM
695 Views
Oh. Okay. I guess the black is just a reflective thing they're doing for the photo.
- 13/05/2010 12:37:24 AM
631 Views
I used to use a ten-pound note to inhale...things.
- 13/05/2010 05:54:09 AM
640 Views
You have a thing for Charles Darwin?
- 13/05/2010 10:45:14 AM
589 Views
From "Mean Mr. Mustard" - "keeps a ten-bob note up his nose...such a mean old man..."
- 13/05/2010 02:36:34 PM
622 Views
In that case I'm going to have to disappoint you.
- 13/05/2010 02:54:04 PM
751 Views
I knew that, but I had limited options.
- 13/05/2010 03:15:07 PM
730 Views
You could try a €500 note.
- 13/05/2010 03:18:11 PM
625 Views
In other news, the sky is blue.
- 13/05/2010 03:33:25 PM
648 Views
- 13/05/2010 03:33:25 PM
648 Views
I seem to remember reading something in 2002 about Germans paying their monthly rent in cash.
- 13/05/2010 03:43:35 PM
727 Views
Ooh...I'm sure THAT will shore up the eurozone... *laughs*
- 13/05/2010 05:51:12 AM
676 Views
Nobody said it would.
- 13/05/2010 12:34:27 PM
653 Views
- 13/05/2010 12:34:27 PM
653 Views
You know what will save the eurozone ?
- 13/05/2010 04:55:06 PM
638 Views