[mattlondon]

> People that were not placed into Gymnasium at age 8 are set on a course where, once they turn 18, do not get to go free Uni; they simply are not allowed to go to Uni at all!

This is curious. Can you elaborate?

So if you don't do a gymnasium class (i.e. physical education I guess?) at 8, you are barred from going to uni at all, regardless of grades? So you might suck at the parallel bars or pommel horse as an 8 year old, but be an absolute mathematical genius but because you couldn't do 100 star jumps in 60 seconds you can't go to uni? Who decides if you can do the gym class? What is it based on?

This sounds very bizarre!

I only have UK experience (or at least how it was years ago - I might be out of touch): unis set subjects+grades they are prepared to accept and if you are predicted to get the grades (or already have got the grades) then you are eligible to apply regardless of what you did as a child. In the UK you do pay these days though - when I went it was about £1000 a year but it is more than that now (9k I think)

[_Microft]

This is not about sports. This might clear it up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(school)