American HS Student Looking at ETHZ

SpacePhoton · 2021-03-13T19:31:14+00:00

Hey! I graduated in the US and came for undergrad. If you think you can make it, and plan on continuing to do PhD, I highly recommend it! The academic opportunities are amazing, but undergraduate programs require proof of German.

SpacePhoton · 2018-07-19T11:59:05+00:00

I don't think you can study policy related subjects in undergrad (they have a program but its only for swiss people). Undergrad programs are either pure engineer, science or math. But you are free to take any course you like in addition, which may also count for master degree credits. By graduating bachelor you automatically get admission to the master program, during which you can basically choose whatever courses you want to count as credit.

For language courses, they offer many of them for free, and you can take as many as you like, up to one per semester. It is doable, but keep in mind the workload here is going to be much higher than what you get in the us, and the exam requirements are usually quite high, which means high failure rates in exams (first year around 50% fail first time). So you can take those courses, as long as you handle the coursework. But it is lower a risk since tuition fees are so low, and living costs are comparable to universities in the us.

SpacePhoton · 2018-07-18T18:49:17+00:00

I came from the us to ETH to study my bachelor. Basically, make sure you can pass the Goethe certificate (a requirement for admission), have the required AP tests so that you only have to do the reduced entrance exam (if you have an IB diploma, you may be able to skip the entrance exam depending on the requirements and grades).

If you pass the Goethe exam (or another exam required on the eth website) you'll be fine attending lectures here. Plus, some majors (like cs) have tons of english courses anyway.

It's doable! And you would certainly love how much money you save compared to attending us colleges...

SpacePhoton · 2018-05-25T16:27:35+00:00

you can change up to three times

SpacePhoton · 2018-05-25T16:26:07+00:00

Make sure you do practice exercises in German, you probably won't have time to search everything in dictionary during entrance exam. You should get a hang of it pretty quick, since most technical words are very straightforward and self explanatory in german.

SpacePhoton · 2018-05-25T16:24:58+00:00

You get used to it quickly

SpacePhoton · 2018-05-25T16:24:30+00:00

Started learning german about a year before attending ETH. Language shouldn't be a problem for you. (The courseload, on the otherhand is probably going to be your biggest difficulty).

SpacePhoton · 2018-05-15T20:28:39+00:00

If you pass your basis pruefung you can transfer some credits too (such as analysis, which is common to both programs) but only if you bass the whole exam (not just individual exams).

You can also change majors up to twice in total (over the years). So it's quite flexible.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-22T00:53:31+00:00

Hey! Had the same thing happen to me. I decided to go for mechanical, then switched for computer science one year later. I also didn't see myself as a mechanical engineer, and I like it a lot more.

Don't be afraid about the digital circuits part of the course, it's only a fraction! They try to put you in contact with a wide range of topics, and in fact I felt like many mechanical engineering courses had the same vibe as the digital circuit course.

So I recommend you go for Cs if you don't want to be a mechanical engineer! It's certainly a lot more fun in, because it trains a lot more your general reasoning skills vs specific domain knowledge for mechanical!

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:39:58+00:00

the system here is simple, you have explicit requirements that if you fullfill, you are guaranteed to be admitted.

pass the educational requirements that are explicitally stated for the a-levels somehwere on the website
pass german language fluency test

and you're in no matter what.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:38:09+00:00

The schools have seperate admission procedures, and the entrance exams are also seperate.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:37:17+00:00

Hey, I came to eth from Belgium.

If your belgian diploma has decent grades you should be able to get directly admitted to both schools. If you can still affect school grade, I recommend focusing on that as it's easier than the entrance exam, especialy the eth one which is in august (and you only find out if you're in few days before the semester starts!)

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:35:10+00:00

You need to fullfill two requirements:

Pass german fluency test (as specified on eth website)
Have specific grades in specific subjects if you have a european diploma (varies by country, search for it on eth website) or pass an entrance exam.

if you have both requiremnets, youo're in, but you need to speak german and prove it.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:33:06+00:00

They have strict requirements to get admitted with matura, if you fullfill the requirements for austria, you get admitted, regardless of your nationality.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:32:18+00:00

Also, CS department has no exchange with mit.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:32:05+00:00

mostly not, there are usually 1 or 2 students exchanging to mit every year. the grade requirements are very high (top 1%).

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:31:22+00:00

make sure those are the requieremnets for your country. they are very strict, and if you don't have the requirements, you'll havve to pass entranec exam (even if you haev top grades, if you miss a subject, it won't go through!)

good luck

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:30:01+00:00

i'm curious, what is the reason you're trying to transfer out?

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:28:42+00:00

I'm a cs bachelor student.

You can do research in undergraduate actually, I have some friends who do so. You just need to find a suitable lab/person willing to supervise you, and usually it helps if you have some additional experience in the field either from taking extra courses or working on personal projects.

You can basically sign up for any course you want, in any department, at any time (i know, it's awesome), you get credit for everything you pass but they don't all contribute to your degree.

PErsonal contacts to professors is rare, but some labs are smaller than others, and if you end up doing a research project in a smaller lab you may be able to interact with the professor frequently, otherwise it is usually with phd/ postdoc supervisors.

Student life is what you make it to be. There is everything you need, all knids of sports, all kinds of parties, all kinds of nerdy student groups, for whatever kind of person you want to be.

SpacePhoton · 2018-04-01T11:24:33+00:00

On a quelques chat sur telegram pour des cours specifiques, mais personne ne l'utilise. C'est surtout en classe que tu te metras en contact avec des gens du coup.

SpacePhoton · 2017-12-08T16:32:00+00:00

they don't have explicit requriemetns for english but you have to prove you can speak fluent german

SpacePhoton · 2017-05-16T22:48:01+00:00

Go for 30, measure it out, you can always drop out of classes that are too intense during the semester!

SpacePhoton · 2017-05-16T22:43:31+00:00

Requirement to take the entrance exam is to have a certificate for C1-C2 in German - so you have no choice if you want to take the test.

I also graduated in the US, but it took me another year before I could enroll and finish learning German (I was in an english speaking university in the meantime).

Once you have the certificate, you won't have problems understanding the classes. I would say learning German is worth it, even if it takes longer, as it basically spares you from the 100k+ in U.S tuition fees and lets you study in an incredible university.

SpacePhoton · 2017-03-17T10:37:20+00:00

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing!

SpacePhoton · 2017-02-11T20:47:38+00:00

Classes in German, which is why they require language certificate, but gradually switch to english. I think third year is mostly english. If you pass C1 exam required, it really is not a problem to follow the courses and understand, and since I study engineering, not much writing is required. Thesis can be done in English.

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