• option: Rely on parenting esp. if wife stays home. However, I think many working parents don’t have the time/energy to do that.
• option: good public school district
• option: Honors-class in a regular public middle- or high-school.
• option: Private schools, charter schools
• option: Private tutoring aka “after school”. I feel this feature is more effective in U.S. than in Singapore. Many Chinese parents in the U.S. choose it but I think most non-Chinese parents don’t choose it.
• option: serious non-exam programs that my son may actually enjoy. Alan himself fell in love with robotics. In SG these are sidelined by the exams because exams are 100% (rather than 50%) of the admission criteria.
• — tertiary
• option: transfer from a community college to a 4Y university
• option: transfer from an ordinary to a branded university
• option: adult undergrad enrollment is more widespread in the U.S. than in NUS. I remember the conversation in the RTS pantry with the American colleague
• option: apply to branded post-grad program, even if your undergrad grades are mediocre like in my case.

Alan said “A lot more options”. Now I think Alan hinted that in the U.S. system, the advantage of academic vs non-academic route is not so decisive.

— compare U.S. to Taiwan systems.. Some would say that at age 18 Taiwan students have fewer options beside college, even if the student doesn’t like academic studies.

— Singapore education system is not too bad and offers my kids some additional options ..
UK/Australia colleges accept  GCE A-levels and Singapore poly diplomas