Will my old (2003!) grades hurt me?

awelex
Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:17:25 +0000

OK, this might get long, so bear with me:
I’m an international student from Switzerland. After primary school, you have to decide at which school you want to continue your education: either secondary school, which lasts 3 years, or the Gymnasium (6 years), which is a prerequisite for university; only with the diploma one gets upon graduation from the Gymnasium (the “Matura”) is one allowed to study at a university.

So, I went to one those Gymnasiums, even one that was considered an “elite school”, at least by the staff (which is a bunch of BS, if you ask me). The first three years, I was a very good student: I got top grades and was the best of my class. In the fourth year, however, things changed: my grades dropped considerably. Nothing had happened: nobody in my family had died, I hadn’t been in a car accident, nor had anything else happened. I was simply fed up with school. In fact, my whole class was fed up, pretty much everybody’s grades dropped (no, that’s not an excuse). It did get a little better in 5th grade, though, but my grades still weren’t stellar. However, I pulled myself together in 6th grade, and I got good grades again.

At the end of 6th grade, you have to pass this huge test, the “Matura exams”. The diploma comprises the grades of this test, as well as the grades you got in previous years (calculated after some complicated formula). Well, I pretty much aced the exams, had great grades and graduated 2nd of my class. That was 2005.

Now, the best grade in our grading system is 6, the worst is (obviously) 1. And although I graduated 2nd, all my grades are either 5 or 5.5. You have to keep in mind, though, that the Gymnasium is a lot harder than high school, and while a 6 is possible, it is very hard to achieve. Nobody in my whole class had a 6, and we weren’t exactly morons.
But I’m still worried that the USC adcoms will equate a 6 with an A in high school and think “this guy doesn’t have a single A, we’re not gonna admit him”. Also, could my 4th grade grades hurt me? I mean, that was like 4 years ago… But I heard that most colleges consider all grades.

Right now, I’m in a private school (I pay for it myself, though) that teaches audio engineering. I’ll graduate this December, and my grades have been great, so far. I’m top of my class.

So, what do you guys think? Could those old grades hurt me?