Post Secondary Education in Turkey

While talking to a new Turkish friend whose children either have gone or are now going to BLIS, I found that getting into University in Turkey is extremely competitive.  In any given year, about 2 million students graduate from high school in Turkey and there are only 500,000 spots in all of the universities/colleges in the whole country.  Students take a summative graduation test as a 12 grader in high school and their spot on the college acceptance list is determined by their score.  Going to university in Turkey is free but if you do not score well and do not get a spot as a freshman at any university in Turkey your only options are to take a 2 year technical school course, not go to college at all, or go to college abroad which is very costly.