Grew up in Zurich and attended ETH in mechanical engineering.

Going abroad for an exchange made me realize how good ETH is. Low assignment workload and pure focus on theory in the first years means the theoretical depth and thoroughness with which it is tested makes this a great education. The student engineering projects that we were able to participate in were world-class. ETH also has a great low-bureacracy culture. The amount of lectures held on cutting edge topics by world-class professors is amazing. And: In their last few years, students have the opportunity to participate in internationally competitive research.

With some exceptions, the students I took classes with during my exchange in North America did not seem nearly as consistenly competent as my peers at ETH.

However, ETH has a few areas where there is definitely room for improvement:

– Male-dominated in many fields, both in the student body and among professors. This definitely must be improved.
– Generally, ETH is not nearly as diverse as other unis (e.g. MIT), which means there’s less diversity of thought and a less creative culture.
– Ethics and scientist’s/engineer’s role in society are almost never discussed at ETH.

I studied mechanical engineering and I now have a very broad knowledge in different fields of mechanical engineering. I learned a lot. The school focuses on the reaserch aspects more than practical aspects.

ETH Zurich is a globally recognized institution, ranked among the top 10 universities in the world. The University’s distinguished faculty members possess valuable industrial experience in the courses they teach, enabling them to relate course materials to real-world applications effectively.

However, some of the University’s examinations can be notably challenging, with an expectation that a significant percentage of students may not pass. To address this, the University implements distribution curves in grading, ensuring that students ultimately pass based on the class average.

In light of its exceptional research output, highly skilled faculty members, and collaborative partnerships with leading companies, I confidently recommend ETH Zurich to prospective students. The University’s global ranking also enhances the employability of its graduates, with employers often prioritizing candidates who have undergone the rigorous training and skill development offered by ETH Zurich. Ultimately, graduates are well-prepared for the job market and excel in the recruitment processes of top employers.

I’ve been studying here for more than 6 years. The university is very well equipped, there are amazing projects to work on and the student organisations are very active.
But it’s also very difficult uni and it seems that the exams are at the end of summer or the end of February. You get almost no free time or holidays which is very stressful. It’s almost impossible to work a job besides the studies

The course content, the possibilities and opportunities at the university and through industry partners is excellent and shows why this is a leading university. Though the teaching is not very modern and could adapt to new possibilities (only few courses have a more tech oriented and interactive teaching). Also the study life balance is not ideal. A lot of work comes along the semester and with exam in august and february time for personal development is very limited. In worst case students have 2 weeks of holidays at the beginning of september and none in winter (time where no studying should be done). Not only does that not allow to relax from time to time it also does not allow to apply the knowledge in internships throughout your studies, which compared to other leading universities is a huge lack. ETH will have excellent students graduating with barely any work experience.

Honestly speaking, the first year is really hard but it’s definitely worth it and through the student associations anybody can find something to balance out the hard work. Though the first year isn’t the most interesting one, motivation can be found quite easily because there are a lot of cool projects where the learned stuff can already be used and the subjects build up a lot on each other.

I’m currently in my fourth bachelor semester on my way to becoming a Biomedical Engineer. I’ll do my best to elaborate on the different aspects of student life here in Zurich.

First of all, the lectures and classes: especially in the first two years of studies (in the bachelor) you’ll have very little choice about your classes. The goal of these two years is for you to establish a base of theoretical knowledge on which future classes can be built on. Later on, you’ll be more free to choose the subjects you wish attend.
All in all, the quality of classes is high and students are expected to dedicate a lot of their time to studying and lectures.

Student life: going out in Zurich is expensive, that’s why a big part of the nightlife is self-organized by students. Student associations are very active (though that also depends on your field of studies, there’s one per department) and organize a multitude of events.

Living in Zurich: most people can’t afford to get a place of their own in Zurich, prices are very high. So students resort to sharing apartments or living in student dorms.

TLTR: Awesome.
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Studies:
For the first years of the Bachelor’s degree, the given curriculum is quite specific and there are not many options to choose. Once the basic knowledge is acquired, more and more options to choose are introduced. The last year of the three year programme is full of electives and eventually the thesis (at least for most students). The most students will do their thesis in one of the Labs at ETH itself. Theses in the industry are rather seldom.
For the Master’s degree, there is a tutoring programme. Each master student has a professor of their department who is responsible for them. Together with this tutor, the course list is determined. Quoting a friend: “For your masters, you can choose whatever lectures you want. You just need to find a Prof who signs it”.
For both, undergrad and postgrad programmes include a certain amount of lectures which are not directly connected to the studies themselves. E.g. some economics, psychology, languages. Great for following personal interests!
Generally, studies at ETH are very demanding and anyone applying there should be ready for some hard work. Holidays are scarce: depending on how lucky you are with the exam schedule you have 2 to 4 weeks between exams and the new semester in summer and 3 days to 2 weeks in winter. Plus one week for Easter.
But to be honest this is why relaxing is mostly done during the semester. The really hard work is done in the lecture free time before exams. two months in summer and one in winter. Which does not mean that the semester is long holidays. Often some kind of deliverables are demanded.

Hard work, but it’s worth it. A lot of knowledge is obtained and especially in Switzerland people with an ETH degree are looked for. Besides that, anyone will leave with a big and powerful network.
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Student life:
Student life at ETH is dominated by student associations. Each field of studies has it’s own student association, which are part of the association for all students at ETH. Each of these associations organizes a multitude of activities. More than anyone could possibly attend. Few examples: movie nights, beer tastings, theatre visits, skiing weekends, paintball,…the list is never-ending.
Due to high prices in Zurich’s clubs, most students prefer to hang out in student bars or in summer around the lake. But of course, there are also great clubs.
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Location:
ETH has one campus right in the city centre and one about half an hour from there. There is a free shuttle bus connecting them. The campus in the centre is about 10 minutes from the main train station and extremely close to the old town with a lot of great bars to relax after studying hard.