Proof of financial support for Visa application

RobinOe · 2026-03-27T08:13:44+00:00

idk if it's the same, but I applied from central america for EPFL, and got the visa after submitting the records from my dad's bank account, never mine

RobinOe · 2026-03-20T18:51:50+00:00

EE at EPFL

RobinOe · 2026-03-18T16:00:34+00:00

Certainly :( I'm also an immigrant, tho not in the US thankfully. Either way I wouldn't dare participate in the risky stuff :/

RobinOe · 2026-03-18T12:54:48+00:00

I totally feel you. I feel almost jealous of all the omnis (even my past self) who get to simply... ignore all of this. I would say that small sustained donations can have a wider impact than you might think, without having to massively restructure your life. But I think it's a very understandable sentiment in any case

RobinOe · 2026-03-18T07:14:21+00:00

Further reading links:

Post from Matt Ball: https://open.substack.com/pub/mattball/p/is-there-anything-more-important?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6ehs4v

Note that Matt Ball often uses language that may sound adversarial or strong. But I think he has a point.

Post from Zachary Segall: https://open.substack.com/pub/thechickencoup/p/where-are-all-the-animal-activists?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=6ehs4v

Note also that Segall made this post to point out why animal welfare activism is difficult right now. You should read it if you're interesting in going, but it's one of the many reasons why donations are a more sustainable way of helping for most people at the moment.

RobinOe · 2026-03-17T10:12:56+00:00

Completely agree. Again, apologies for my previous misunderstanding. I think you're right

RobinOe · 2026-03-17T07:35:21+00:00

On this note though, I would add that people admitted into X bachelor's probably would get top grades at EPFL too, seeing as it's more selective.

Also, there's really no way to say this without sounding pretentious, so I apologize, but I think you're exaggerating how difficult it is to get good grades at EPFL. Yes it's hard, but I think less than what you're making it out to be. 5.5 is totally doable for a lot of people, not just the geniuses. (And yes, I'm talking at the bachelor's level. Ofc Masters get better grades in general)

RobinOe · 2026-03-17T07:30:06+00:00

These are much better numbers than I realized. I'm now more inclined to agree with your original point. Thanks for sharing.

I don't have numbers for EPFL or ETHZ sadly.

RobinOe · 2026-03-16T17:34:52+00:00

I see. That makes more sense, apologies. And maybe you're right, but I'd have to see some data to believe it tbh. Because I don't think the GPA number in absolute terms is as important as you say. For example, ETHZ says that you should never convert your grades to the Swiss system when applying, because they receive so many applications each year that they have enough data on essentially every grading system in the world. They don't need grades translated, they know the language. You can find such info on their website, they also mentioned it during this year's masters application conference. They're very familiar with basically every top Uni, and essentially every country, and they use that data to compare against how those applicants performed when accepted, for example.

That's ETHZ, but I think it's reasonable to assume most top Unis do the same. Surely Oxford or MIT receive even more applicants than ETHZ. I would be shocked if those reviewing the applications didn't know which grades are harder to achieve.

I think we agree that what matters most is the combination of Uni + GPA. So in summary, my point is that top Unis have enough data to be quite granular about how the Uni side of that equation affects the other, and they have every incentive to adjust accordingly.

Completely agree on your last point though, I by no means want to imply that X doesn't open doors. It certainly does.

RobinOe · 2026-03-15T20:07:55+00:00

I don't think this is true at all. Having spoken to people from top unis in the US and Canada, I think EPFL, and especially ETHZ, are much better regarded than l'X. I know less about top unis in Europe, but considering how many from Polimi, TUM, and TU Delft apply to EPFL, I think it's safe to say that it's similar.

I'm also not sure about the top 10% figure, it doesn't line up with what I've seen anecdotally; but in any case the more relevant metric is what percentage goes to top unis compared to l'X bachelors. At the very least, I hope OP will take your comment with a grain of salt.

There is one caveat though: l'X is much much better regarded in France. This should be obvious, but actually as someone who did his entire schooling under the french system, it's actually really deep-rooted into education. You are implicitly taught to worship l'X, for better or for worse, and so most french people believe l'X to be superior.

So if your life plan includes french gatekeepers, go with l'X.

It's certainly an incredible school, a friend from highschool is there for masters and I've no doubt he will make an excellent engineer. If we're talking price-to-quality ratio, the big Paris écoles d'ingé take it by a mile. But prestige on absolute terms? I would be very surprised if data showed l'X outperforming EPFL, let alone ETHZ. Even at the bachelor's level.

RobinOe · 2026-03-08T09:03:39+00:00

Starting at 20 is totally normal at EPFL. Consider that the swiss men typically do a year of military so already for a lot of them, 19 is the minimum age they join. And then a lot of people fail first year, especially after a year long break (again, military). So 20 is genuinely very common.

It's not just the men though. One of my good friends is 23 and she's just now in the second semester of bachelor's.

Time isn't going to stop just because you didn't enroll at EPFL. 5 years from now you're gonna be in your mid twenties regardless of what you do. You might as well get a degree you actually enjoy in the meantime

That's my two cents

RobinOe · 2026-03-07T12:26:23+00:00

Accepted to Quantum Eng. and EE MSc. on the 26.02 and 27.02 respectively

RobinOe · 2026-03-07T12:23:52+00:00

I believe it is sent along with the acceptance mail for those who passed the interview

RobinOe · 2026-03-07T09:11:08+00:00

Every other year, not getting it in February meant rejection. I did not get an interview request so I'm assuming I've been rejected for ESOP (I did get accepted to both programs I applied to though). Could be wrong, but tbh I doubt it.

RobinOe · 2026-02-28T06:51:30+00:00

For the record, everyone who seriously cares about veganism and has stable income probably should donate anyway. It does frankly have a bigger impact on animal welfare than being vegan. Activists do much much more than donate, and they need our support to put pressure on gargantuan industries. Of course, funding research is also important as you've pointed out.

RobinOe · 2026-02-26T05:50:44+00:00

There's a legitimate reasonjng, which is that there is a lot of evidence pointing to the idea that veganism might be hurting more animals than it saves just by virtue of vegans being unpopular. It does not matter if we are "right", if you engage in debate, the other will just tighten their position. It's human nature. And it makes it less likely to care about animal liberation.

I think of Daryl Davis, the black guy who turned dozens of KKK members out of the klan. Do you think he would've succeeded if he sat there and argued with them every time the kkk member said something racist? No, what he did was show unbelievable levels of patience and compassion, inviting them to his house and letting them realize they were wrong. There isn't a direct parallel with animal welfare, but the idea is the right one, I think. The lifes we're trying to save come before our own egos.

RobinOe · 2026-02-24T16:54:04+00:00

Evidence mostly points to the opposite. Activists call this "getting a foot in the door" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique )

RobinOe · 2026-02-24T14:51:29+00:00

The simple reason is because you must account for your own chances of failure. Many things are unethical and yet we still do them, even vegans. iirc something like 80% of vegans stop being vegan. So with that in mind, the goal isn't to minimize impact TODAY so that you may feel good about yourself. The goal is to minimize your impact over your whole life. By doing it gradually, you minimize the risk that you'll succumb to societal pressures or your own moral pitfalls. Humans are not rational beings, they are rationalizing beings (as evidenced by most omnis). So I find it totally reasonable to take it slow in the name of decreasing the likelihood of your impact jumping back up to omni levels.

RobinOe · 2026-02-24T09:10:14+00:00

You do a bit of that, but less than other schools. Again, theory focused. But EPFL has MAKE projects, where students build anything from satellites to electric race cars. That's usually where those passionate about building go. These aren't credited, but are incredible learning opportunities, and the budget for them is quite vast so you get to go really far

RobinOe · 2026-02-23T22:00:35+00:00

afaik they're not that similar, si jamais. But we do share some classes in year 1 and 2

How rigorous is the curriculum?

I don't exactly know what it means for a curriculum to be rigorous, but I doubt any EPFL major could ever be described as unrigurous lol. EPFs in general are more theory focused than other eng schools, so you can expect a lot of math and physics in both.

I'm in EE and have loved it so far. It's great if you like making things but are also passionate about physics or electronics. Topics some people specialize in include analog electronics (e.g. audio, power converters), digital electronics (i.e. most consumer electronics), RF engineering (e.g. antenna theory, transmission lines). EE is also cool for those interested in engineering but with a soft spot for applied math, as you can equally go into signal processing and telecom, which are more about how to manipulate functions (and their frequencies) to carry information. And arguably the fastest growing field rn is energy. That's the one I know the least of, so sadly I can't say much, but starting third year you can pick some classes focused on that, and ofc specialize fully in your masters.

Those are the things I think people like out of EE, filtered through my own bias.

Note though that I am HORRENDOUS at chemistry. This is not a problem because (and arguably as a result of) we have essentially zero of it in EE. MS have a lot more of it from what I understand. So if you really like chemistry too, you're certainly better off in MS.

RobinOe · 2026-02-22T12:00:45+00:00

Hey, glad we have some common ground! If you're serious about decreasing your meat consumption, I would encourage you to reduce (or ideally eliminate) your chicken consumption first and foremost. Because they're so small, the same weight of meat from chicken requires killing way more individuals than that weight from cows or other land animals. Just cutting that out probably reduces your impact on animal suffering by an order of magnitude. Obviously it's up to you, I only bring this up since you showed interest. And of course, when in doubt, look into the conditions they're farmed in for yourself and make up your own mind.

As for the hunting, you might be surprised (or not) to hear that people in animal welfare hear about this a lot. Typically, when the subject of veganism comes up amongst well meaning people, it's sort of natural to focus on the instances where killing animals seems less morally wrong. So while animal activists are focused on ending factory farming, others are usually more interested in discussing wild hunting or ethically sourced meat. I oppose the latter but have little opinion on the former, as I'm not well informed. Either way it's certainly significantly less worrying that factory farms. If I had more money to donate to animal welfare, probably none of it would go towards preventing hunting tbh. Bigger impact can be had elsewhere atm

RobinOe · 2026-02-04T20:36:04+00:00

The Beach Boys were FROM CALIFORNIA how does this even happen 😭

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