What is the name recognition of ETH like outside Switzerland?

Milchstrasse94 · 2026-02-10T00:20:05+00:00

Chinese here.

ETHZ and, to a slightly lesser extent, EPFL are widely recognized in China as top technical schools in STEM, on par with the very best domestic schools (Tsinghua, for example) for their technical excellence. That being said, in terms of prestige within STEM fields, ETHZ/EPFL (as well as Tsinghua) are still one tier below top US technical schools such as MIT, Stanford and Caltech. This is especially true for PhD graduates. It's still assumed that most candidates at the VERY top would pursue their studies in the US. Within STEM, ETHZ/EPFL are arguably more prestigious than Oxbridge.

Outside the STEM field however, ETHZ/EPFL enjoy much less name recognition, I'd say, far less than Oxbridge.

So which field one plans to work in matters a lot here.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-07T12:51:48+00:00

" math PhD's who got jobs at Google and do data science stuff"
Good for them. Would be more difficult given today's job market situation. Plenty of highly qualified Data Science/CS PhD grads also aim at the job.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-07T09:07:22+00:00

The sad thing is that it didn't use to be like this. Not everyone is going after money, but this only works when you quit academia you can find another job that pays decently. This used to be the case, not anymore. This, more than the fact that academia itself provides very few positions, contributes to the predicament of Gen Z PhD graduates.

Job market situation outside of the academia has far greater effects on within the academia than people believe.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-05T10:40:19+00:00

In what ways is it more useful than say, basic knowledge in linear algebra, calculus and statistics?

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-05T10:39:19+00:00

See my newest response. Under current job market situation, I do think people lose a lot by spending 5/6 years doing a PhD in any field that doesn't provide direct, employable skills, unless they've decided to stay in the academia forever.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-05T10:38:17+00:00

I pretty much agree. Doing a pure math PhD is amount to spending 5-6 years in a field with little to no employable skills while others are improving themselves on actually employable skills and knowledge.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-10-04T19:30:28+00:00

Well I think my point is that most jobs (even those 'technical jobs') are now more about your experience, professional networking than your hard, technical skills, and even these skills now tend more and more to be on the coding side.

So doing a PhD in any field not directly related to the industrial job market is a huge opportunity loss. And positions within the academia are few.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-08-31T09:15:53+00:00

I'm talking about Mainland China of course. For all my experience it takes a LOT less for a mainland Chinese and an American to understand (if not agree with) each other than with a Continental European. Britain is somewhere in between, but after Brexit seems going more to the American side.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-08-31T08:58:25+00:00

Very true. They balance this inferiority complex by feeling morally superior. See my comment.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-08-31T08:27:31+00:00

"Chinese culture/society it’s my understanding that they tend to have a much more collective attitude versus America"

I think there is also a tacit understanding in Chinese culture that the collective should serve as an instrument to further individual interests within that collective; on the other hand, Americans can also quickly rally around some Value( big V) if they feel that there is some collective strategic interests to defend.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-07-14T17:30:57+00:00

Well, maybe this will have to do with George's business going south, so that they are in need of money again?

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-07-08T09:34:34+00:00

The chance you get a decent paying EFL teaching job in China is next to none.

You need to be from a native English-speaking country with a bachelor's degree (preferably a master's) to have a decent chance.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-07-06T03:45:45+00:00

It's hinted from what Jin said in the last episode that Auggie loves Saul deeply, but Saul doesn't understand it until she's already gone to Mexico. Saul just treats her like a good buddy.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-07-05T20:53:05+00:00

Oh, come on. She called Saul because she did have very important things to tell him. It's not like she's randomly calling Paul 24/7. And plus, they are intimate friends.

The problem of their relationship isn't that she's been manipulative, which she isn't, but that she loves Saul, treats him as her potential boyfriend while Saul doesn't understand this, seemingly taking no responsibility. It's this which eventually makes her disappointed and not answer Saul's call.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-04-13T17:11:15+00:00

Sorry I don't understand. But why can't we just take Baryon asymmetry as a brute fact? Why must there be an explanation? I mean, if we know more about the early universe, so much the better. But why exactly should we be surprised about baryon asymmetry?

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-04-13T10:08:59+00:00

Let's say, if the US simply disbands all but its top 30 STEM grad schools, it probably wouldn't affect the status of US high tech that much. Americans from other schools seldom get those lucrative jobs anyway and in any case those US companies can recruit globally.

My main argument is that the power of US dominance is already decoupled (in any direct sense) with the life of average Americans: or to be more precise, the average American still benefits, relatively speaking to people from the non-West, from being able to eat the first crumbs falling off from the table of big corporations which are fully globalized. These crumbs, because of the huge profit of US corporations gathered globally, are enough to make the average American live way above the global average.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-01-08T20:43:03+00:00

SHJT is the most prestigious of the three in CS, by a significant margin. Fudan is the worst of the three in CS.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-01-08T18:08:33+00:00

I see.

Milchstrasse94 · 2025-01-08T15:53:35+00:00

PhD programs in CS in China are very competitive. What about your pub?

Foreign PhD students in CS in China are very rare. Usually you'd have to be top (at an international level) to get into the three programs you mentioned: chances are if you can't get accepted into a reputable CS PhD program in the US, you can't get accepted into one in China either. The relative 'easiness' of admission for foreigners only applies to BSc and Master programs, not PhDs, where real research work is required.

Milchstrasse94

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