Hello,


I have run into a problem with a University here in Switzerland. I applied for a Bachelor of Arts program and have been rejected on the grounds that my high school credentials in Canada do not meet the requirements for Swiss Universities. Here are the requirements, as stated on the CRUS website (no English option):


Now here are the relevant courses I completed:

1. English (grade 10, 11, 12)
2. French (grade 10, 11, 12)
3. Mathematics (grade 10, 11)
4. Biology and Chemistry (grade 10, 11 ) (advanced, so 12 credit was given at the end of 11)
5. Geography (grade 12), Law (grade 12), History (grade 10, 11)
6. Electives from Humanities and Social Sciences: Psychology (grade 11), History of Ancient Civilizations (grade12), Marketing (grade 11, 12)

Now, every German-mother-tongue speaker I’ve asked about this has said that under this context “während der letzten 3 Jahre” means “within the last three years”. The school has come back however, saying that because some of these courses were not taken each year, for the last three years, that I do not qualify for admissions. My problem here is that on the CRUS website, it also states that a BC Dogwood Secondary School Diploma (which i have) is accepted for entry. So now, since they will apparently also not accept cumulative credits to fill these pre-requisites and I had a completely ''normal'' course load in Canada and what with the normal load of required (completely useless things like: Physical education, career planning etc.) courses, it was not possible to take some of these courses each year for the last three years.

For example, ''Law'' can only be taken in Grade 12; there is no ''Law'' course for Grades 10 and 11. (This is the standard, Canadian (B.C) curriculum, so it makes no difference which school I attended.) I also took ''Advanced Sciences'', so I was done with all the science requirements in Grade 11, therefore I did not take any science courses in Grade 12 as there were no more available.

I was also informed that I do not fill requirement number 6, ''since none of the subjects corresponds to the options in the correspondent categories (2, 4 or 5)''. Is ''Psychology'' not a social science? And ''history of ancient civilizations'', is that not in the category of ''humanities''?



What I would like to know is if there are any Canadians on this forum who have applied for admissions for a Bachelor Program in Swiss Universities. Has anyone had a similar experience and can offer some advice/tips?

I just don't see how it's fair to say they accept a BC Dogwood, ''but only as long as it fills requirements, which are not possible to fill ''… Either they accept the diploma, or they don't.

Consider border town Universities in DE as an option. It will soon be tuition free, just watch out for the Numerus Clausus aka quota. Admission is foreigner friendly - qualifications can be assessed online at Anabin.DE

I assume your provided your transcripts and had your High School diploma evaluated before you submitted? It might not hurt to contact EDK.ch and ask them.

Here is a good thread, US high school, though, I assume the process will be similar.

General policy (aside from the ETH) I've come into here is that they only assess paperwork once an application is submitted and paid for.

And Canadian high-school is completely different from the USA. Canadian entrance here may be tough, but Americans have it worse off for sure.

This thread was completely not what I was expecting.

That all being why the International Baccalaureat is being more and more popular...