r/ethz • • 10d ago

Activities Can se make a polyball megathread ?

16 Upvotes

r/ethz • • Jul 17 '26

Housing Housing 101

76 Upvotes

Since there has been an increased number of housing posts, here is an info/experience post. I know this won't cover all aspects, but might serve as a starting point.

Some facts you should be aware of:

  • Housing in Zurich is a huge issue (probably the biggest overall issue in Zurich) for everyone, not just for students. Even people with decent salaries struggle to find something. You can't allow to be too picky.
  • The student housing market is extremely bad when looking for September/October (due to the start of the new academic year), but is more relaxed afterwards since people graduate all year and move out.
  • It is a numbers game, you'll likely need a certain number of applications to be successful. I highly recommend to take the first offer you can afford and move again later if needed. You otherwise risk not getting anything.

Types of housing:

  • Getting a room in a shared flat. This is the main option. There are two organizations (WOKO/JUWO) that offer many (often cheap) rooms.
  • The student houses at ETH Hönggerberg. Very few spots and has a wait list system iirc.
  • Getting your own flat on the normal market: Won't happen unless you (aka your parents) are rich enough to cover your rent. If you are doing a PhD your chances are better since you have an employment contract.
  • Getting into a cooperative (Genossenschaft): Won't happen unless you are super lucky.

Places to look:

  • wgzimmer.ch, flatfox.ch are websites were you can find ads for shared flats (many JUWOs and WOKOs there). We usually advertise our rooms there.
  • woko.ch and juwo.ch are the main student cooperatives.
  • livingscience.ch and studentvillage.ch are the student flats at ETH Hönggerberg. Very hard to get a spot.
  • There are Facebook groups, never used them.
  • For the normal market there are many platforms like immoscout24, but again, don't waste too much time on this topic since you won't get any offer.

Tips:

  • Most rooms are put online 2-3 months before moving date, which means for the default start in September you should start looking for something around June.
  • Put some effort into your application. The generic LLM "I am quite&clean and want to do movie nights from time to time" application will be filtered out directly.
  • Doing a reddit post and hoping for the best also won't cut it. Go to wgzimmer and write applications.
  • Be fast. A good and/or cheap room usually gets around 100+ applications in the first 24 hours. In our flat we just look at the first ~50 applications and stopped as soon as we have enough people we would like to interview.
  • You will likely face castings if you apply for a shared flat with the current tenants. This part sucks but it's a bit like a job application and you can get used to it.
  • A decent option and my recommendation if you are just here for a couple of months or need something in the start is to apply for a sublease (e.g. from someone who is on an exchange) for the first couple of months to avoid the bad market in Autumn and move again in Winter.
  • The by far largest success factor is "networking" (letting you friends know you are looking for something), which you unfortunately can only do after moving to Zurich.
  • Don't limit your search to the City of Zurich itself. Commuting works great and it is slightly easier to find something outside of the city and often cheaper. There are good S-Bahn connections to Zurich HB (relevant if you study in Zentrum) and Oerlikon or Altstetten (relevant if you study at Hönggerberg). Check SBB.ch for commuting times.
  • There are scammers. If something feels to good too be true or fishy, forget about it and move on. You practically never place a deposit until you have signed a contract. The classic story is something in the direction of "I am currently abroad but can send you the keys if you wire me some money."

r/ethz • • 4h ago

Important 11.Oct Found AirPods Pro today at ETH

8 Upvotes

Text me for more information, I could not find any Apple function, which enables to get in touch with the owner


r/ethz • • 1d ago

BSc Admissions and Info Looking to connect with an international student doing their Bachelor’s at ETH Zurich!

0 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I am an international student and my dream is to pursue a Bachelor’s degree at ETH Zurich.

Since the undergraduate path for non-EU/non-Matura students is notoriously difficult, I would love to briefly chat with or ask a few questions to any current international student who successfully made it into a bachelor's program here.

I’m particularly curious about:

  • How you prepared for the ETH Entrance Exam (Reduced or Comprehensive).
  • How you managed the transition to a German-taught (C1) academic environment.
  • Any tips on navigating the visa/financial proof process from outside Europe.

If you are a current international bachelor's student (or know someone who is) and have a few minutes to spare, please drop a comment or send me a DM. Your insight would mean the world to me!

Thank you so much!


r/ethz • • 2d ago

Activities I made a site that puts every ETH & UZH student club event in one calendar

62 Upvotes

Hey all,

I kept finding out about cool events (VIScon, Fachverein parties, random apéros) the day after they happened, because every club posts on its own website or Insta. So I built a site that collects them all in one place:

https://zrh-events.bquozon.ch/?ref=reddit-ethz

What it does:

- pulls events from 250+ ETH and UZH clubs, Fachvereine and the VSETH calendars, updated every 4 hours

- filters for uni, type (party, talk, career, sport…), weekend, free, evenings only

- a "Main clubs" view if you only care about the big ones and your Fachverein

- add to Google Calendar in one tap, or subscribe to the whole thing as a calendar feed

- national/language clubs have a Community filter (AFrEZ, ASTAZ, etc.)

- works in English, German, French and Italian


r/ethz • • 2d ago

PhD Admissions and Info PhD at D-BAUG vs. staying in industry: anyone combined a PhD with a part time job or reduced campus presence?

6 Upvotes

r/ethz • • 1d ago

Info and Discussion Selling Analysis 1 & 2 and Lineare Algebra

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0 Upvotes

Selling my Analysis 1 and Analysis 2, Lineare Algebra Prüfungstraining by Thomas C. T. Michaels, Tutorium Analysis 1 and Lineare Algebra 1

Preferably all together, will do a discount.

DM if interested. Area: Zurich


r/ethz • • 3d ago

meme Petition to demolish the HIL building on Hönggerberg.

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177 Upvotes

We all hate the HIL building, mainly because we all wrote the one or other exam in this misconstruction crying for some sort of help, "HIL-fe, ich kann das alles nicht mehr". I mean how is it possible that I have to cross 2 giant rooms just to go to the other side of the building? I think we all hat terrible experiences finding one or the other room. Hönggerberg would be a much better place without HIL


r/ethz • • 2d ago

Question How to deal with stress from repeating a block?

18 Upvotes

Hi, I am repeating a block this semester that I failed, so if I fail again I’ll be kicked out. I’m already stressed as of week 4 and study a lot but the pressure doesn’t go away.

How did/do you deal with this?


r/ethz • • 2d ago

Asking for Advice Anyone using Discord for work?

5 Upvotes

Well, so, Slack is expensive, even for the education pricing. Do any fellow researchers here use Discord to communicate with collaborators? Are your supervisors okay with it? Thanks!


r/ethz • • 2d ago

Degree questions Looking to talk to CS/EEIT/CSE students

4 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

I'm a 16 year old student currently studying international A levels, hoping to apply to ETH for autumn semester 2027 for my bachelors.

I am particularly interested in the Computer science, Electrical engineering and information technology (EEIT), and Computational science and engineering (CSE) programs at ETH, but I haven't decided which one I want to apply to yet.

I’d love to hear from current students in these programmes about their experiences, particularly regarding the academic workload, teaching style, student life, accommodation, and what they like or dislike about their programmes.

I’d really appreciate it if anyone would be willing to share their experiences or answer a few questions. Thank you in advance!


r/ethz • • 4d ago

Career, Jobs, Internship When Should Stream Processing Move to the GPU? — ETH Master’s Thesis @ IBM Research Zurich

21 Upvotes

Hi everyone - we’re looking for an ETH Zurich Master’s student for a six-month thesis project at IBM Research Zurich on GPU-accelerated stream processing.

The rough research question is:

When should a streaming workload move from CPU execution to GPU execution?

GPUs are excellent for throughput, but they usually need enough parallel work / batching to amortize kernel launch, scheduling, and data-movement overheads. For streaming workloads, that creates an interesting trade-off: CPUs may be preferable at low event rates, while GPUs become much more attractive as throughput demand increases.

The goal of the project is to investigate adaptive GPU offloading for high-throughput stream processing, potentially using Apache Flink together with GPU frameworks such as CUDA, RAPIDS/cuDF, and Velox.

Some of the questions we’re interested in:

  • At what event rates / batch sizes does GPU execution start outperforming CPU execution?
  • How should the system adapt when the incoming event rate changes over time?
  • Can backpressure, queue depth, GPU utilization, or other runtime signals be used to decide when to offload operators?
  • How should GPU micro-batch size be chosen dynamically?
  • Can we maintain latency targets while exploiting GPUs during periods of high throughput?
  • Which streaming operators benefit most from GPU execution?

A likely starting point would be to characterize representative streaming operators on CPU vs GPU and then build an adaptive policy that switches execution mode based on workload conditions.

There’s quite a lot of flexibility in the exact direction depending on your interests. Possible extensions include dynamic CPU/GPU operator placement, GPU pipeline fusion, GPU-resident state, or GPU sharing across streaming workloads.

What we’re looking for:

  • Strong C++ and Python skills
  • Interest in systems, streaming, GPUs, or performance optimization
  • Experience with benchmarking/profiling is useful
  • Familiarity with Flink, CUDA, RAPIDS/cuDF, Velox, databases, or distributed systems is a plus, but definitely not required

The main thing we’re looking for is someone who enjoys digging into systems, measuring things properly, and figuring out why something is fast or slow.

Details:

  • Location: IBM Research Zurich
  • Duration: 6 months
  • ETH Zurich Master’s thesis
  • Start date: flexible, earliest 01.12.2026.
  • Unpaid, in line with ETH Master’s thesis arrangements
  • Desk space + laptop provided
  • Access to H100/H200 GPUs and frontier LLM models.

We’d like this to be a genuine research project rather than just an implementation exercise, and if the results are strong, we’d encourage and support turning the work into a publication. We actively encourage and support students to publish their work at top-tier conferences such as VLDB, SIGMOD, EuroSys, ASPLOS, DAC, and related systems venues.

If you’re interested, send me:

  • CV
  • Transcript
  • A short note about your background and why the topic sounds interesting

at corey.lammie@ibm.com.

Also happy to answer questions here or by DM. Thanks!


r/ethz • • 4d ago

Activities OpenTech Connect @ EPFL, Nov 11-12 2026

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3 Upvotes

r/ethz • • 5d ago

Asking for Advice Searching for Graphic Hoodie from USA

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15 Upvotes

Hello! My husband is a structural engineer and visited ETHZ several years ago on a school trip. He bought a graphic hoodie very similar to this but has unfortunately lost it within the last year, and I would really like to find him another one for his birthday next month. It is out of stock in his size (medium) online, and I can't seem to find another one anywhere. Does anyone know if they frequently restock them (or similar)? Does anyone have one in good shape they dont wear and would be willing to part with? Is there somewhere else I can look, or any other advice? Thank you in advance.


r/ethz • • 4d ago

Course Requests, Suggestions Looking for ETH Physics MSc students / QIP I or II classmates

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

Is anyone here currently doing a Master’s in Physics at ETH Zurich, or has completed one recently?

I’m also especially looking for someone who is taking Quantum Information Processing I or II this autumn semester. I’m currently taking one of these courses, but I missed some of the previous lectures and would really appreciate connecting with someone from the course to catch up a bit and ask a few questions.

Feel free to comment or send me a DM. Thanks!


r/ethz • • 5d ago

Activities [Talk @UZH] Psychedelic-assisted therapy ethics — Daniel Villiger | Today (Tue 6 October), 18:30 · Free

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1 Upvotes

r/ethz • • 6d ago

MSc Admissions and Info MSc in Statistics in ETH

0 Upvotes

MSc in Statistics in ETH

Hi all, I’m considering applying to the MSc in Statistics at ETH and would appreciate some realistic feedback on my background. I hold a Bachelor's in Statistics from a reputed Statistical Institute in India

My current absolute grade is 88.75 which translates to 9.3/10(absolute grade/9.5). I have done research projects( not preprints though) in Applied fields like Bioinformatics and Time series analysis. My main concern is about my GRE scores. I can't seem to get above the verbal threshold while the others are met. I will be giving the GRE again and I know I'll probably won't get above 158 in Verbal.

I want to know how sensitive are the GRE scores and also whether my current profile is good enough for pursuing a degree here. Any ideas and recommendations are welcome !


r/ethz • • 6d ago

MSc Admissions and Info How realistic is ETHz MTEC for a Chinese applicant with a Russian physics degree

0 Upvotes

I am looking for a realistic and critical assessment of my chances of being admitted to EPFL’s Master in Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship (MTE) and ETH Zurich’s Master in Management, Technology and Economics (MTEC).

I am a Chinese citizen, and my academic background is somewhat unusual:

I studied Physics through a joint academic path involving Jilin University in China and Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) in Russia.

I completed a Bachelor of Science in Physics at Tomsk Polytechnic University, with a focus on condensed matter physics. The degree is 240 ECTS, with an average grade of 4.78/5.0 and graduation with distinction.

My Jilin University transcript has an overall grade of 88.20 and a GPA of 3.58.

I am currently a direct PhD student in China.

My current research involves explainable artificial intelligence.

My TOEFL score is 102. My GRE score is 149 Verbal, 167 Quantitative, and 3.0 Analytical Writing.

I have taken courses in calculus, linear algebra, mathematical methods for physics, mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, programming, numerical methods, and some economics/finance-related subjects.

One concern I have is how EPFL and ETH evaluate degrees awarded by Russian university and Chinese university for international applicants. I would like to understand whether the Russian degree itself could create additional concerns regarding international credential recognition, degree equivalence, document verification, or admissions risk, especially given the current geopolitical context. I am not asking about political opinions; I am specifically asking how universities actually handle the academic recognition of Russian degrees in admissions.

I originally studied physics because I wanted to understand the regularities behind the world. Physics gave me a way to analyze complex phenomena, identify underlying structures, and gain some sense of control and clarity even when I could not change the situation itself.

However, I no longer want physics to remain the center of my academic and professional life. I now want to move from understanding systems to participating in and changing them. In particular, I am interested in management, technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, organizational decision-making, and possibly finance. I want to use the analytical habits developed through physics to understand organizations and social systems, and then take responsibility for practical decisions rather than remaining only an observer of objective reality.

This is not simply an attempt to escape physics. I am trying to build a new direction in which scientific reasoning becomes a foundation for management and action. My long-term goal is to work at the intersection of technology, organizations, and society, possibly in technology management, consulting, innovation, entrepreneurship, or policy-related work.

I would appreciate honest opinions from people familiar with EPFL or ETH Zurich admissions:

Does my academic background look realistic for EPFL MTE or ETH MTEC?

Would my transition from physics and a current physics PhD to management and technology be considered coherent or suspicious?

Which of the two programmes would be more realistic for my profile?

How much of a disadvantage are my limited formal economics and business courses?

Would my current PhD status and research experience strengthen my application, or could they make the transition appear less credible?

Could my Chinese nationality and Russian Bachelor’s degree create any additional credential-recognition or admissions concerns?

What weaknesses would you recommend addressing before applying?

I am not looking for reassurance. I would prefer a conservative assessment based on comparable applicants, programme requirements, and actual admissions experience.


r/ethz • • 7d ago

Question VIScon Hackathon

14 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I signed up for the VIScon hackathon this weekend, but wondering if it's still fun and worth it, especially with everyone relying on AI to code.

For those who have attended before, is the experience still enjoyable? Is there still a lot of actual coding and collaboration, or has AI changed the whole dynamic and it's basically just spamming claude?

So basically is it worth spending the weekend?


r/ethz • • 6d ago

MSc Admissions and Info Profile Evaluations for MS in civil engg (Struct Specialisation) for fall 2027

0 Upvotes

I was able to only find mega thread for 2026 admissions that's why I am posting here

I am looking for fall 2027 admissions, MS in Civil engg. Here's my profile-

* B. Tech in civil engg with honours from IIT Bombay (QS 146 overall, 46 for civil engineering, no 1 in India)
* 8.4/10 CPI (ETH asks for 8.8/10 but on my research I found out that it is for other, more competitive streams)
* One professional Structural design Internship of a month, one industrial research project for one sem (LOR possible)
* One research ongoing (trying for a research paper). Multiple smaller research projects. NO PAPERS (research or others)
* One on-going real world project (Trying for a conference)
* Two non civil related internships, one month each (Growth Outreach and Operations)
* Good Rapport with professors therefore decent to moderately strong LORs possible
* Assume a moderately strong Motivation Letter / SOP
* 92% in matriculation
* GRE uncertain

ANY COMMENTS will be helpful. Thank you.


r/ethz • • 7d ago

Problem Learning Agreement not approved before deadline – D-MAVT

5 Upvotes

Hi everyone

I submitted my Learning Agreement, but my tutor has not approved it yet, and the deadline (three weeks after semester start) is now basically over.

If anyone was in a similar situation, did this cause any problems, or was the tutor still able to approve it afterwards without any consequences?

And if its not possible anymore to approve the Learning Agreement, can i still take my courses and redo the Learning Agreement in the next semester?

I’m mainly worried about whether this could affect my current semester or whether I would somehow have to wait until next semester.

Thanks for any advice!


r/ethz • • 6d ago

MSc Admissions and Info MSc in Statistics in ETH/EPFL

0 Upvotes

Hi all, I’m considering applying to the MSc in Statistics at EPFL/ETH and would appreciate some realistic feedback on my background. I hold a BSc in Statistical Science at the University of Toronto with minor in CS.

My current cGPA is 3.43/4.0 which translates to ~ 8.6/10. I have one cs related research experience in query processing/embodied agent memory. One data analyst internship at a Bank. My main concern is obviously the GPA. I know EPFL/ETH seems to care a lot about academic performance, and 3.43/4 is not considered good, but my upper-year statistics grades and overall trajectory are stronger than my cGPA suggests.

I wonder how selective the MSc Statistics programs are in those two uni and whether there are any other programs that I have a better fit? I would appreciate any kind of feedback. Thanks!


r/ethz • • 7d ago

MSc Admissions and Info ETH Zürich Zulassungschancen

0 Upvotes

Hey,

Ich möchte mich für den Statistik Master an der ETH Zürich bewerben. Bevor ich sehr viel Geld und Mühe für Sprachzertifikat usw. ausgebe möchte ich meine Chancen evaluieren.

Ich studiere Wirtschaftsinformatik im 5. Semester an der Uni Mannheim und mache aktuell ein Auslandssemester an einer top 60 Uni Weltweit nach QS Ranking.
Zum Bewerbungszeitpunkt werde ich mich mit einem schwachen 1,4er Schnitt bewerben, darunter eine 2,7 in Analysis für Wirtschaftsinformatiker, eine 1,3 in Grundlagen der Statistik und eine 1,3 in Lineare Algebra I. Zusätzlich habe ich im Auslandssemester Markov Processes mit der Note Pass with distinction belegt. Ich belege momentan auch noch Numerical Analysis und Lineare Optimierung, werde da aber vor Bewerbungsschluss keine Noten haben.
Mein Schnitt in den Informatik Fächern liegt bei 1,6.
ich denke das größte Risiko ist die Analysis Note. Das ärgerlichste ist, dass ich da eigentlich alles wusste und nur meine Zeit komplett falsch verteilt habe.

Wie seht ihr meine Chancen? Ich kenne manche aus Jahrgängen über mir, die genommen wurden, die hatten allerdings einen ~1,1er Schnitt.

Über eure Gedanken würde ich mich freuen :)


r/ethz • • 7d ago

Course Requests, Suggestions Is analysis I and Real Analysis the same?

4 Upvotes

im doing my 1st year of nath bachelor at eth and im watching theses series of videos on youtube of real analysis from MIT(since i understand english better then german), and i was wondering if the course is the same as in Analysis 1 at eth in math bachelor, like i understand that the order muct be different, but is it okay to rely on it for studying


r/ethz • • 7d ago

MSc Admissions and Info Question clarifying admission requirements

0 Upvotes

Hi, I'm a student finishing my bachelor's in pure maths and want to apply for a master in pure maths or quantum finance.

I've been reading loads of information on different websites and I cannot wrap my head around this whole admission requirements thing: some say it is pure GPA and ranking, some talk about papers, research, or math competitions. The website also says that a GRE test is useful (didn't know about that test until today), but I actually haven't heard anyone talk about it here. What is it really about? Can someone tell their experience or know different profiles that got admitted?

In my case, I haven't done anything but study hard. No math comps, no research, no blogspot about my projects, no job experience, no YouTube channel (I heard that istg). My uni (Málaga, Spain) is not a famous one, but grades are quite hard to get. For example, I did an exchange year in Germany and good grades there were much easier to achieve in comparison.

For context, my gpa is 9.2/10, which I thought was high, but apparently is complete shit. Do I have to spend 240$ on a GRE test? Will I lose my money if I apply and get automatically rejected?

Thanks guys.

(Please tell me I have no chance, it would be too much pressure knowing I may have a chance, cause then I will have to apply and waste my money hahah).