system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do university grades work in the US? Does GPA apply to university?

I have noticed that quite a substantial portion of university students in the US seemingly manage to graduate with a GPA of 4.0, which, in my understanding, translates to them having achieved the highest possible grade in all of their courses. 

Where I am from, achieving a seemingly equivalent feat (highest possible grade in all courses, including thesis, doctoral viva, ...) translates to the President attending your graduation and personally congratulating you. Only about 0.04% of all students manage to achieve this.

So, my question is how does this make sense? Does this have something to do with the distinction of "college" and "university" in the US? Is this just a case of Grade inflation being much worse in the US than in Europe? Is it possible to "fix" your GPA if you have not achieved the highest possible grade in some exam?
gpt
From what I've seen (European applying to US unis, studied in NL and DK), it's much easier to get an A for US courses than in many other countries, so yes: grade inflation. An 4.0 in US courses only maps to a ~8/10 in Dutch courses, if that.