I'm glad one of my old profs in the Netherlands refused to bend and was fine with arguing his 40 percent first pass numbers (the target was 60 for some reason, hint: money). If everyone is exceptional, nobody is.
The point is that Harvard kids are all more or less exceptional. Harvard and other Ivy Leagues attract the best students in the world, not only mostly local talent like European schools. European universities are most similar to state school systems in many regards.
also, in my experience high grades are rare in the netherlands at all education levels.
I did both mbo and hbo levels, and on both levels getting a "A" (10/10 or 9/10) was a very uncommon thing.
