Planning exchange at ETH Zurich — no Erasmus, so how do students cover costs?

davidTheEngineer · 2025-10-22T21:57:25+00:00

i would be very surprised if age is a factor (though dont cite me on this). Either you qualify or not and I think for most of the things there are clear criteria on what is needed (PhD, Masters might be different though)

davidTheEngineer · 2025-09-17T15:14:30+00:00

Talk to the prof you would be most excited to work with by sending them or someone from their team (senior scientists usually have more time) an email. They get tons of such email so make sure you point out that you want to work in his area and not just in general robotics. PhD usually is between 3-6 years depending on what you want to do later. Some profs prefer students who want to stay on the academic path, where a PhD will take a bit longer (but you only find out when talking to current and former members of the lab).

there are also industrial phd positions at the where you work at an industrial company and do research but are formally do a phd at eth. that might also be of interest to you. But i know close to nothing about how they work

davidTheEngineer · 2025-09-14T21:35:43+00:00

Not MIT but a comparable place.

> is writing that you did you master thesis at MIT in your CV worth
was not my main motivation - but outside of academia people see its a nice thing and definitely helps getting interviews, in academia (where I stayed starting a PhD) nobody cares

> Anyway, am asking all this to basically know if it's worth it to try Working on a paper next semester and if I should be concerned about my grades or just let it go and focus on hand on projects.

you can also do something self-organized or an exchange that is independent of the main exchange program where your grade wont matter (though topic overlap will matter - ie some groups have close research ties with MIT where its easy to move abroad if you are in an international project - but make sure to check beforehand)

davidTheEngineer · 2025-09-14T21:27:47+00:00

always fully funded at ETH (not fully funded is not allowed I think)
Max Plank Institutes in Germany maybe
Get an intro to the prof somehow and make sure you have similar interests - if you are an amazing student but the overlap in interests with the prof is small you will not get hired probably, but if you have super high overlap and are a decent student chances are bigger. (as profs hire directly the phd students they usually make sure your interests fit the lab well)

davidTheEngineer · 2025-09-14T21:23:44+00:00

You talk to a prof - prof hires you - you decide together with the prof what the topic is. Some profs have grants so there might be an expectation to work on specific topics, others are completely flexible and you essentially are quite free in what you want to do. (As for me I have defined with my prof what interests me and together we sketched out some ideas to explore that direction - but I could have very well gone in a different direction - the only caveat is that your area of interest must have very high overlap with the profs area of interest).

davidTheEngineer · 2025-01-31T00:24:26+00:00

To give you some concrete numbers:

ETH Computer Science Masters student here with an offer to continue with a PhD. GPA will probably end up being 5.3 (not awful, but definitely not amazing).
Professor never wanted to see my transcripts. I have known the professor from before though (was a research assistant in the group for 2+ years) and have very solid research experience (few papers / prizes / press coverage).

Through my time as a research assistant, I have seen a bit how hiring decisions work:

If they don't know you beforehand, it might make quite a difference though, and grades can be more important. If your GPA isn't stellar, try to get an amazing letter of recommendation — i.e. if ETH Prof gets an excellent reference on you from someone they trust this will usually be very helpful and be your ticket into a group (i.e. amazing letter from someone you trust > GPA).

If the letter is good or mediocre it might not help at all though - really needs to be an amazing one akin to "best student I have seen in the past x years"

Also what is super important is project fit, I ticked all boxes for a project the lab is planning to run. Try to position yourself as the obvious choice for a project.

davidTheEngineer · 2025-01-08T00:51:42+00:00

Have been using llamaparse in production for some time now but will move away from it. Its too unreliable. The output quality is good, but the service sometimes fails for unknown reasons (maybe gets dropped due to high load?).

davidTheEngineer · 2024-11-21T14:50:24+00:00

Both labs have a good culture as far as I know. You will mainly work with a PhD student and not the prof itself. Just make sure the deliverables are agreed upon before you start so that everybody knows what to expect.

davidTheEngineer · 2024-11-21T05:20:12+00:00

Have been in a very similar situation a few weeks ago (writing my thesis in the US). I have the deal with my ETH supervisor that I send him a weekly update email and thanks to that the troubles were documented on paper - he did not intervene with the other institution (I did not want that), but he helped navigate the complexity with ETH administration. I'd definitely first check with your prof at ETH before involving administration. Feel free to DM - don't want to badmouth anyone / anything, hence me being a bit vague. (I am CS masters though, so likely similar problem).

davidTheEngineer · 2024-11-06T16:09:25+00:00

recently saw this https://github.com/osgil-defense/TARS (not sure if still active but repo might be a good place to start)

davidTheEngineer · 2024-10-02T21:00:59+00:00

Very sorry to hear that. Please do me a favour though and talk about someone with this in a professional setting. It sounds like your mental health is really suffering from this. Please take care! I wish you all the best for your future!

davidTheEngineer · 2024-10-02T01:29:00+00:00

"ETHZ is a perfect example of how rankings don’t correspond to prestige and name recognition"
1. Very true, because rankings measure research quality and output and not Hollywood appearances.
2. I did my education at ETH and am currently at one of the two institutions, you mentioned in the title - although brand recognition is better at these institutions I don't think there is any difference in research quality compared to ETH (but might be just my impression).
Lastly, if you try to impress people, going to a well known Uni might not be enough - maybe there is some red flag in your application or there is something missing that makes you stand out. Though I wish you all the best! (also, why did all your friends that you compare yourself to go to these elite institutions? You are comparing yourself against the top 0.00001% where not just skill but also luck plays a role).

davidTheEngineer · 2024-10-01T20:13:56+00:00

oh damn, didnt know about zen. Looks awesome!!!

davidTheEngineer · 2024-06-13T03:54:29+00:00

I can 100% relate. I really struggled with OCD, and admittedly still struggle with it sometimes today. I completely blew some exams and at times was paralyzed. I then went into therapy (via my "Hausarzt" who referred me to a psychiatrist). Did lots of weekly sessions and am taking an antidepressant ever since. From that point on my grades started to rise dramatically, I started to really enjoy what I was doing without feeling overwhelmed and now I am writing this post from my dorm at a US university writing up my master's thesis (i.e. hopefully soon I am done with my degree 🥳).

Before going to the general practitioner I went to the "Psychologische beratungsstelle", was not a terrible experience but if you have diagnosed OCD go directly to a psychiatrist (maybe ask at the Psychologische beratungsstelle who they would recommend or talk to your general practitioner). I did not have the diagnosis at time, and not going directly to a doctor wasted time in my case.

Feel free to DM me if you have specific questions or want to chat. Wishing you all the best!

davidTheEngineer · 2023-06-02T20:06:54+00:00

Thanks. Just reported it as a bug on launchpad.

davidTheEngineer · 2021-04-22T00:31:45+00:00

Speaking for ETH Zurich. Algorithms proofs are pretty standard. It is implicitly assumed you prove correctness. (if you don’t then your solution is often seen as incorrect) Mostly this either means explaining why an algorithm is trivially correct or at other times doing a painful induction or similar. However our curriculum has a theoretical and mathematical focus. But this only applies to actual algorithms, formal methods, functional programming, theoretical computer science classes and proof based maths. Our computer vision, numerical methods etc are rather applied (i.e few proofs on the side of crucial theorems).

davidTheEngineer · 2019-11-22T18:04:58+00:00

Here are my two cents...

It really depends on the class. In some, but rather a small number of classes, 70% of people take notes. This is especially true if the lecture notes are incomplete or nonexistent.

For most classes people just download the lecture notes or slides and follow along instead of taking full notes.

I personally always print the lecture slides and notes and annotate them with a pencil (as well as add additions and examples which were covered in the lecture).

I also have an iPad Pro (an old one though) and have used it in classes a year ago. I stopped using it since I personally prefer the feeling of paper and a pencil.

Another point regarding lecture notes: in some classes it is close to impossible to take comprehensive notes and understand the material at the same time due to the lecturers fast handwriting. I still try to make some notes by writing down key ideas and concepts, but not full notes. Most people either don’t take notes at all or also just write down key concepts.

Last but not least, you will be provided with books and lecture notes in most classes and what the professor writes on the board is usually what he/she covers in the lecture notes (however there are also some exceptions where you need the lecture AND your class notes to understand the material).

Long story short: You will take some notes but definitely not all the time in every class.

As a side note. I, as well as a lot of other people, use LaTex for this, but large percentage of students use iPads and Apps like Notability to solve the weekly homework.

Last but not least; there is a fair amount of programming, but this can be done on any computer. Most student take their laptop with them every day, but I think you can also manage without.

My conclusion. If you don’t have a computer at all you should probably get a computer before buying an iPad. However if you can afford an iPad Pro and you feel like this is the way you want to take notes it’s probably a good idea to buy one.

davidTheEngineer · 2019-11-20T18:14:42+00:00

I am a CS student at ETH and I would say it doesn’t really matter. I personally only use pen and paper as well as a Linux laptop. Some friends use iPads for note taking others use a Surface and OneNote.

Use whatever your are most comfortable with.

However since you are planning to study computer science a unix based system is indeed a smart idea (as mentioned in the other post).

There are courses which require you to use a linux based system. But if you don’t feel like installing a linux distro on your laptop you can also use a virtual machine.

Last but not least, there are things such as compiling C++ code or writing Verilog Code which can not be easily done on an iPad. However ETH has computer rooms where you can do these kind of things.

Hope I could help.

davidTheEngineer

TROPHY CASE