ETH Zurich

The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich, abbreviated ETH Zurich in German, is one of the two technical universities in Switzerland. It is a public school and was established in 1855. Currently, there are 17’000 students studying at ETH. In addition to offering a wide range of education programs spread across the areas of engineering, science, and technology, ETH systematically ranks as the top university outside of the United States and Great Britain as well as ranking in the top 10 technical universities worldwide.

Originally, ETH consisted of only one main building at the center of Zurich. Over time, the school grew and spread into surrounding buildings which were available. As a result, the main part of ETH does not have a classical campus, but most buildings are still fairly close together in the center of Zurich. Besides guaranteeing excellent public transportation, this ensures that there is always a nice bar, cafe or restaurant nearby. Since ETH does not directly provide housing opportunities, students must look for a place to stay prior to coming to Zurich. Due to the enormous demand (and possibly the limited budget of a typical student), finding an apartment in Zurich can prove to be a challenging endeavor, which is why most students share apartments with other students or end up accepting some sort of commute.

The academic year consists of two semesters, a fall semester from September to December and a spring semester from February to May. During the semesters, students can take courses which on average consist of three hours of lectures and one hour of exercise sessions per week. Since most exams take place right before the start of the following semester, most of the time between semesters is spent studying and preparing for exams and thus you can always expect to find students in the ETH buildings. Upon successful completion of a course, the student receives credit points, a fixed number of which are required to complete a degree.

The curriculum at ETH consists of first completing a Bachelor’s program which typically takes students about 4 years. Once a Bachelor’s degree is obtained, students usually spend another two years getting their Master’s degree. The amount of time required to complete a program mainly depends on how long it takes the student to gather the required credit points, but ETH imposes global upper limits. After obtaining their Master’s degree, students who wish to engage in a PhD can apply for doctoral positions which will typically take another three to five years.

There are a lot of student associations which provide different services and benefits for students related to their studies. Besides these services, another important objective of the student associations is to create opportunities to socialize, organize parties, and organize job fairs where students can meet potential future employers. In general, many companies are very interested in getting to know students from ETH at these job fairs and even though career opportunities will vary depending on a student’s major and grade point average, most students have multiple job offers lined up by the time they finish their studies.

From my personal experience at ETH as a computer science student and as member of the board of our student association, I can definitely say that the five years I spent at ETH have been very memorable indeed. Even though I worked hard, I also got to know many interesting and brilliant people from around the world and established valuable friendships, personal and professional. In summary, I can definitely recommend this unique life experience.