Turkish-German University is founded through the shared intentions of the Turkish & German governments, and even though the university is located in Istanbul, the lectures are 100% in German. There's this system that they call 'Flying Faculty', where half of our lecturers are coming from various german Universities through DAAD funding. This is a pretty neat thing, since it allows you to network with professors from Berlin, Aachen, Magdeburg, ...
Whilst TGU isn't the hardest university to get into, students still need to perform better than 99% of the country in the nationwide university entrance exam to get in.
I was rarely the best student of an invidividual class, and I also was often not the most hardworking or the most intelligent student of a class. However, I consistently got good grades from all classes I took, which enabled me to graduate from computer science (Informatik / Bilgisayar Mühendisliği) program of TGU with a GPA of 4.00/4.00, and become the first graduate of any faculty of TGU with a perfect GPA. TGU is a relatively young university, and I owe my success partially to that. In the end of the day, this is a great thing to put on my CV, but it doesn't really make my future path better than other graduates of TGU. I just have one good-looking thing in my CV, and that's it. It feels weird to mention this in interviews, too. It sounds a bit too 'proud' to mention it. I still end up mentioning it sometimes... What can I do? I'm just trying to market myself...
I was gifted a fancy hourglass from the rector after my valedictorian speech, which is also nice.