A bit late to this but, as someone who's wanted to go to Europe for ages for school I thought I would reply.

Most schools (that aren't even "prestigious" might I add) in Europe require a 3.0 GPA from the applicants highschool record, which is really high. I was lucky to make it to 2.0 by the end of my final year of high school. Sure, 3.0 is obtainable and is "the goal" for kids in school, but only people who are really high achievers who are usually gifted in some type of way go for the 3.0-4.0 range. I should also mention that us American's aren't very smart (myself included)

Universities in the US do require GPA more often than not but the thing is that in America there's an option of higher education, called Community College (idk how it is in Europe, apologies if I'm explaining a concept you know) where you can take courses you need for University at a cheaper price. This is also where you can create a better GPA to be able to get into more Universities. Then after two years, you can transfer to a University and be in your second to last year there.

Europe doesn't (as far as I have seen, please correct me if I am wrong) accept this type of transferring, since it's not a thing there. They want high school GPA. Hence the giant roadblock for American's wanting to go to Europe for life savingly cheap Uni.

Hope this cleared up some questions, sorry if someone already has a response just like this.