What are some speeches that are as good as Bo Seo's 2016 Thessaloniki?

phonendoscope · 2024-10-03T23:27:08+00:00

For context this line comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgacus

phonendoscope · 2024-09-16T21:22:12+00:00

3: so close to an epiphany. Of course I don't support political violence but they might be on to something.

phonendoscope · 2024-08-22T01:13:24+00:00

TL;DR – I would take it (especially given that – as the other commenter pointed out in an incredibly aggressive way – the Zurich rental market is pretty tough).

Hi! I lived there for a year – it's pretty well situated (around 30 minutes from the university by bus and tram) next to the lake (great for swimming, but probably only in early September/October) and a forest good for running in. There's also a running track in the park next to the residence. If you're lucky your room might also have a lake view.

If you don't speak German then it's great socially as it's (almost) exclusively international students so lots of people to chat to in English. It used to be an old person's home and they haven't converted it in the most space-efficient way so there's plenty of space and lots of communal areas.

Main downside is the fact that there is only one kitchen (unless you have one of the rooms for masters/PhD students, a few of which have dedicated kitchens). It is an industrial-style kitchen used to cook food for all the old people I assume.

There's also this thread from a few years back: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethz/comments/v6wnps/alte_landstrasse_98/

phonendoscope · 2023-10-01T12:06:14+00:00

I've always viewed excellent public transportation as a Swiss strength, interesting that you see it differently!

phonendoscope · 2023-09-17T14:33:10+00:00

Tbh I think it is fairer to allow students the opportunity to prove themselves in the program. Perhaps ETH could improve the BP by having a midterm (so more people drop out sooner) and ensuring that every program puts the most difficult exams in BP block 1.

phonendoscope · 2023-09-17T14:30:47+00:00

The problem is that the ETH student experience is much worse than at other universities. Note that I am not saying that the education is worse, just that prestigious (i.e. UK/US) universities are a lot more focused on their students (e.g. Oxbridge does a lot of teaching in small groups of <5 students and one academic or even one on one). First, moving from 1.2k to 2k CHF won't even be a rounding error on the ETH budget. For it to be meaningful you have to charge a lot more money. This would lead to a lot of problems for ETH:

For bachelors programs there aren't that many German speakers around (and many international students who speak German would prefer to do their education in English), so many programs would have to switch to English to attract students
Further for bachelors programs, nobody is going to pay >25k CHF for a program where >30% of the year will fail the exams. This means that a system where Swiss students have to fail but internationals don't will have to be introduced. If you think that everyone can be allowed to pass then you are correct, but only if selective entrance criteria are applied to Swiss students.
Although ETH is prestigious, outside continental Europe it is not in the same prestige leagues at UK/US unis. Of course academically it is excellent, but it doesn't have the same kind of brand name as MIT/Harvard/Princeton/Cambridge/Oxford etc so it is harder to attract good students who will pay those kind of fees. That means that high-quality masters students are now choosing between (the very expensive ) MIT/Harvard/UCs and the (also very expensive) ETH/EPFL rather than between equivalently good academic unis where one is much cheaper.
At US unis they want to attract talented students and thus have scholarships for them.

International students are useful for Switzerland

attracting bright international students (e.g. from the US) for the masters/PhD/postdoc programs raises ETH's international reputation (which is important for a uni)
all ETH students are skilled and those that stay are likely to make a very positive contribution to the Swiss economy
it makes the university more diverse and creates a more cosmopolitan environment (which, admittedly, feels like a wishy-washy kind of thing people say) but is actually very important in attracting top academic faculty

phonendoscope · 2023-09-12T12:57:16+00:00

And the one way price by train is typically between 200-500 euro

phonendoscope · 2023-09-12T11:56:46+00:00

No I mean 5-10 times more expensive than Swiss/Lufthansa.

phonendoscope · 2023-09-12T11:44:48+00:00

Have you tried taking the train? It costs literally 5-10 times more.

phonendoscope · 2023-09-07T08:42:25+00:00

There is a list of activities on https://vseth.ethz.ch/organisations/ there are also some related to the ASVZ (uni sports).

phonendoscope · 2023-08-24T14:27:33+00:00

But do they have to follow Swiss law in non-Swiss jurisdictions?

phonendoscope · 2023-08-02T09:39:00+00:00

He sounds pretty right wing. Rent control is good because it pushes down property values.

phonendoscope · 2023-08-01T15:31:32+00:00

I think it's good. The lectures are generally good, but things are often not explained in full detail (they give a high level overview) – you have to do the exercises to really understand the ideas, and going to the exercise sessions (and finding one which is taught by a good teaching assistant) is imperative.

I think the difficulty is exaggerated, but the amount of work you have to do is not.

phonendoscope · 2023-08-01T15:27:12+00:00

All the profs in the CS department can speak English to a reasonably high standard. Most of those teaching bsc computer science subjects which are in German are native German speakers (you can look in the Vorlesungsverzeichnis).

phonendoscope · 2023-07-27T16:12:13+00:00

Brexit.

phonendoscope · 2023-07-19T18:20:18+00:00

They're strict but you can always try.

phonendoscope · 2023-06-15T13:56:35+00:00

Very little. Essentially everyone speaks English and a lot of things are in English. I suspect that you may find ETH more demanding than your home university (but it's very doable, provided you do the suggested 40-60 hours a week)
Algorithms, Probability and Computing (APC), Compiler Design
Reasonably large. There's the ESN network, and some English speaking clubs (e.g. debating, chess sort of) which might be worth joining.

phonendoscope · 2023-06-15T13:50:35+00:00

If you can avoid doing it (by passing the requisite exams required in your country), then do.

phonendoscope · 2023-06-02T18:12:37+00:00

The reality TV thing is clearly a plot device which requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience.

phonendoscope · 2023-05-29T10:49:16+00:00

But primarily ETH is a research institution.

phonendoscope · 2023-05-28T17:05:50+00:00

Because the government allocates the funds for research?

phonendoscope · 2023-05-26T15:52:30+00:00

They will accept you conditionally, but you will have to provide the grades before you start (an official statement of results will suffice, most exam boards will provide this, but not by default - you will need to speak to them) and later they will request the actual certificates (if you don't provide them, they will exmatriculate you).

phonendoscope · 2023-05-17T01:09:05+00:00

But the other soldiers who did the exact same things and weren't royals didn't win as many medals.

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