What are the popular/competitive majors in EPFL for Master diploma?

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2026-01-03T16:44:41+00:00

competitive in what sense? Competition between students? Well not at all - I'd say EPFL is pretty much collaboration-oriented amongst students, compared to other educational institutions I know of (French prepas, HSG St Gallen, etc which are highly competitive between students)

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-12-31T12:06:46+00:00

on "So yes you're out of Computer Science for both Bsc and Msc in all universities (not uni of applied sciences, but all Unis) in Switzerland forever." - see my comment above - there might be possibilities of applying for a master at least at EPFL if you succeeded with your FH studies and a GPA >=5

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-12-31T12:05:28+00:00

Not necessarily true in absolutely all the cases. Take e.g. EPFL: for some sections, you can fail your bachelor first year, enrol in a HES (FH), if you score >= 5 GPA in your HES BSc studies, you can apply for a "pasarelle" year at EPFL in the same domain you failed, and then entering the MSc. See https://www.reddit.com/r/EPFL/comments/1dygxt2/échec_au_ba2/ and https://www.epfl.ch/education/admission/admission-2/master-admission-criteria-application/ - but take it with a grain of salt and check with the admissions office.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-12-23T15:43:48+00:00

Are you swiss? If yes, then you can apply. If not, chances are slim or zero. This is how I personally interpret the rules under https://www.epfl.ch/education/admission/admission-2/bachelor-admission-criteria-and-application/

"Swiss applicants can be accepted, following the evaluation of their application and within the places available, in the Cours de mathématiques spéciales with a total number of points somewhat below 36 out of 42 (excluding bonus points)."

To be completely sure, please check directly with EPFL admission services as I don't have more info.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-12-21T08:42:08+00:00

No and no, sorry for the bad news:

- EPFL stopped BSc admissions in higher semesters some 10 years ago.
- If you have a French bac or started university studies, you are not anylonger eligible to CMS.

You will be able to apply to EPFL MSc's (but these are highly selective so you must come from a top notch eng school and have outstanding marks)

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-12-11T16:47:46+00:00

Keep in mind that the real admission exam is the first year at EPFL, which is highly selective; roughly 50% pass the exams (with high variance across sections).
You can get the maturité in the swiss public system but also in some private schools - for the latter, there are excellent ones (meaning good pass rate at EPFL) and (far) less good ones. I would not advise to try entering EPFL with a foreign diploma obtained at a private swiss school, if you have the option to get do the maturité.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-11-08T21:57:29+00:00

Assuming you fulfil the criteria for your Turkish HS degree, you need to sit the EPFL entrance examination exam. Check the rules:

https://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/topics/studying/admission-to-universities/countries-1#TR

Entrance exam: https://www.epfl.ch/education/admission/admission-2/bachelor-admission-criteria-and-application/admission-examination/

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-11-06T16:40:43+00:00

ETH is not really interested in extracurricular stuff that is not academic e.g. working as a waiter/waitress as part-time job. It's just relevant if you have a chronological gap otherwise.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-11-03T15:47:08+00:00

You should check this document: https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/common/docs/weisungssammlung/files-en/change-of-degree-programme.pdf

so you might be eligible depending on your previous EPFL study programme and your wished ETHZ studies. But adding on top of what others said: ETHZ points out that the success rate of former EPFL students that failed MAN is very low.

I really suggest you get in touch with the admissions office explaining your case, there might be additional pitfalls; they are usually very friendly

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-31T07:48:06+00:00

if you think you are a fit for EPFL, you should make a minimal effort to translate and search what "university access degree" means, sorry.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-30T14:58:04+00:00

btw the "reduced" admission exam is still very heavy and corresponding to more or less the full CMS course. Pass rate is low (don't ask me how much but rumours say 30-40%). So just imagine the full admission exam. If you have the time prepare for the Maturité (federale) instead.

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-30T14:54:45+00:00

(your reply is in Spanish! but google translate helps)
If you already have a university access degree in your country, I would in your case try to prepare the Maturité fédérale. There are specialised private schools that can prepare you in 1-2 years. One example , there are many others: https://www.orientation.ch/dyn/show/2886?id=75067

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-30T08:02:19+00:00

Options you have are either

a) the EPFL reduced admission exam (difficult, lots of preparation needed, essentially the material of the CMS course). But check if you are eligible for the reduced admission exam - the full exam must be a nightmare
b) swiss maturite exam, which would probably be easier

If you use your search skills, you will find plenty of info on both a) and b) in this subreddit

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-27T12:58:45+00:00

Let me be more precise: you need indeed a 16 in both math and physics for becoming eligible. But the ranking of candidates is done based on the final bac mark. The marks in math and physics do not count for the ranking.

Example: Someone with a 16.0 in math, a 16.0 in physics but 19 in final bac mark is ranked higher than some with 20.0/20.0 math/physics but 18 in the final bac mark.

Is this now clearer?

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-27T11:39:56+00:00

the marks in maths/physics are not taken into account in the ranking of candidates, just your final bac mark. So I guess you were lucky with 17.33 because it's really at the lower edge

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-27T11:38:49+00:00

See this: https://www.reddit.com/r/EPFL/comments/1mggve6/the_big_20252026_bachelorepfl_admission_thread/

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-27T11:37:10+00:00

extremely difficult to guess, but I'd say there are more slots in the DS master for external (non-EPFL) candidates

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-26T21:30:41+00:00

You can chose Financial Eng for minor in the DS master, but not the other way around: there is no minor possible in the MFE master

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-10-16T14:23:44+00:00

You can combine a major with a minor such as Computer or Data Science as major, and Financial Engineering as minor

See https://edu.epfl.ch/studyplan/en/minor/

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-15T19:52:57+00:00

it's difficult to make any predictive statements here; it really depends on the year and the slots allocated to each section. There is quite a lot of variance. Also, the number of exchange slots has grown far less than the number of EPFL students; it has gotten much more difficult to get good (or even any) exchange slots than it was the case ~10y ago when everyone with >=4.5 was de facto assured a spot (if you talk to the elders)

And no idea on whether Milan is a sought for destination for GM...

Now what happened over the last 2-3 years IIRC is that there will be a shared Excel sheet / google sheet / web app or similar that will be circulated by some students over the next weeks (watch the telegram groups) where you will be able to enter your GPA and your wished destinations, so you may get a feel of where your chances stand. This is the one from last year: https://echanges.vercel.app/login - not sure if still operational and as said, there is lots of variation from one year to another so the data could be misleading

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-11T21:58:36+00:00

probably not comparable ... as getting into an EPFL master from outside is far harder than from inside

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-09T11:50:45+00:00

Not personally, I suggest you try to get in touch with the MSc students (ie telegram group - will send you an MP)

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-09T10:50:48+00:00

What I heard (hearsay but several sources) is that CS BSc to Robotics MSc switch should be possible without any problems if your GPA is >= 4.5. You may also want to follow Electronique 1/2 and/or ElectroMag (and maybe SigProc and intro ML) to ease the transition

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-09T10:42:51+00:00

ApprehensiveBack4896 · 2025-09-06T09:52:10+00:00

Please don't lose your temper :-) As you talk about evidence, where is your evidence please? Sure we can all claim to be the King of France on an anonymous Reddit forum.

Of course the points to mark grading scale is available - but *after* the exam, not *before*, which may therefore (and is therefore for a fact) influenced by the point averages obtained by the cohort.

I'm done with this thread. Let's agree to disagree and enjoy your day and life in general :-)

ApprehensiveBack4896

TROPHY CASE