I do not know if I will get the chance to find a solution to my questions, but I really can't understand if my Swiss Diploma (aka "Attestato Di Maturità Cantonale Riconosciuto Dalla Confederazione" - such a beautiful name btw
) is a strong/weak/neutral one to get into Imperial either for Computing or Physics degree program. Maybe if someone else is a student at Imperial (or in the UK) from Switzerland and is reading this then I can get some help, since contacting Imperial itself was not helpful at all.
On the entry requirements page, it is written that the minimum for Switzerland is:
"Overall grades of 5.0, with 5.0 in relevant subject". But this is surely only the minimum, not the recommended requirement (they also told me that I only need to have a 5.0 in maths, no matter the level of competence, and that is a ridicolous low requirement). My grades (final one) are the followings:
First Language - Italian: 5.5 x3
Second Language - German: 3.0 x2
Third Language - English: 4.5 x2
Maths (Further Level) - 5.5 x3
Biology - 5.0 x1
Chemistry - 5.5 x1
Physics - 6.0 x1
History - 5.0 x1
Geography - 5.0 x1
Arts - 3.5 x1
Biochemistry (Further Level) - 5.5 x3
Physics (Further Level) - 5.5 x1
Personal Project (Calculators: Physics, Electronic and Mathematics of these machines) - 5.5 x1 (my teacher was shocked by the fact that the examinator does not give me a 6.0/6.0 as he considered it "a small masterpiece"
)
If you take all the weightings (in Switzerland, unfortunately, subjects can count x1, x2 or x3 into the final grade) I come to score 105.5/126 that is 5.02/6.0 overall. I think this is not a competitive overall at all. But
if you count only the scientific subjects, then the overall is 5.5/6.0. The problem is that I have really, really bad grades in Arts and German (
). I asked the admission team if they will even consider the bad grades in these two subjects (they are completely useless for a degree in Computing/Physics at Imperial) and they do not really answer this question (
).
Can I really not get an offer only because of the bad grades in Arts and German, despite the fact that I have 5.5/6.0 overall in relevant subjects?!?!Then the second problem is that I still do not understand if UK A* A-Level is compared to a 5.5/6.0 or 6.0/6.0 in the Swiss system; It seems to differ from place to place. (why?)
Now, the point is that I still have a year in front of me, and I will surely take some time (a lot) to study some new school related stuff (and I will try to get the maximum from it), therefore I do not know if I should take or not A-Level examinations, given my situation. Imperial said that it is not necessary if I already have the required grades, but do I have them?
On one hand I do not want to be forced to get other qualifications if mine is good enough (I prefer to study for the pure pleasure of learning new things, rather than for an examination), but on the other hand, I want to make sure that my grades are strong enough for an application at Imperial to be successfully.
What should I do? I am so confused!
Ps. Sorry for my "not so good" English, I still have to work on it...