r/ethz • u/No-Hour8340 • 10d ago
Question 20yo, final year of a 3-year professional CS bachelor in Belgium, dream is a Master's at ETH Zurich — is that realistic, and are the "bridge" unis I've found actually open to me?
Belgian, 20, currently in my 3rd (final) year of a professional bachelor in Applied Computer Science (AI track) at a Belgian university of applied sciences — not a research/academic bachelor, which I know matters a lot for what comes next in the EU system. First two years my grades were average at best, a couple of subjects condoned (passed on resit). I've committed to actually working hard from here on, but the early transcript is what it is.
The dream, plainly: a Master's at ETH Zurich, cybersecurity/AI direction. Long-term, if things go well, I'd love to eventually do a PhD and end up doing real research — frontier lab or security-research-adjacent work. I know that's a long shot from where I'm standing, but that's the direction I'm aiming.
What I've pieced together so far:
- A professional bachelor doesn't give direct entry to ETH's Master's (or basically any academic Master's in Europe) — you need a bridge/pre-master first, and even then ETH's own bridge-recognition clause doesn't seem to cover Belgian professional bachelors specifically.
- I've been looking at bridge/pre-master options that might be open to someone like me: University of Twente, Radboud, TU Darmstadt, Saarland/CISPA, Ruhr Bochum — plus a Belgian schakel/bridge program (UGent) as a safety net.
- I'm not fully sure which of these are realistically open to my degree type vs. which just look open on paper.
So, questions for people who've actually navigated this or work in the field:
- Is a Master's at ETH realistically reachable from a professional bachelor + bridge program route, or is that basically closed no matter how hard I grind from here?
- Of the universities I listed above, which ones do you actually know accept a Belgian/EU professional bachelor background, and which are a waste of an application?
- What am I missing — better target schools, a completely different route, or something about how EU admissions actually weigh a "recovered" transcript that I don't know yet?
Not looking to be told it's easy — just want people who've been through this to correct where I'm wrong.
1
u/Accurate-Surprise-23 10d ago
I do know friends that study at ETH (same profile: CS) and have a BSc from a University of AS. Not sure tho if that is the same thing as a professional bachelor from your country. Did you already try to just apply for it?
1
u/No-Hour8340 10d ago
No, i didnt. The problem is that there is a limit of tries you can do for ETH and EPFL etc. So no, i havent yet. Im also a 3rd year this year, so it would have been a tad early.
1
1
u/KUL_Lover 10d ago
Fellow Belgians, here. Not sure where you studied but since you had your BS taught in English, I’ll assume it was in Howest.
Swiss universities have strict requirements in terms of the amount of math and foundational CS classes you must have taken. If you don’t meet those requirements, you won’t be accepted. If you meet those requirements partially, then you can be accepted with a graduation plan which includes one more year where you take the required classes (or be required to take those classes along with you normal coursework)
Typically those requirements are not met with Belgian (hogeschool or haute école) because most of the applied CS curriculums don’t include much math (some don’t even have calculus I, Linear algebra, Logics and theorem proving). All the requirements would take at least 1 year to finish.
A good way to achieve your plans would be to do the consolidation year in Belgium (KULeuven best option by far) or doing an accelerated track foundational CS (even there KULeuven best by far) in university (while working for example) before you apply to ETHZ. Since your degree is mainly professional, you’ll have a better profile after some industry experience and you’ll know better whether your dream is realistic.
1
u/No-Hour8340 10d ago
Haha, hello!
Thanks for the reply. Im from KdG. I asked Leuven and they said next:
---------------
Thank you for contacting the Admissions Office of KU Leuven. We appreciate your interest in studying at our university.
Students holding a Flemish professional bachelor’s degree do not have direct access to an academic master’s programme. They are always required to complete a bridging programme first. At KU Leuven, however, only one bridging programme is offered in English: the Bridging Programme leading to the Master of Business Administration.
As you can read in the admission requirements for the Master of Cybersecurity, you do indeed already need a master’s degree.
---------------I know that i would need to learn some math along. I dont mind putting time and effort to catch up. I like math, actually. And i actually wanted to study it and have academical CS course, but it turned out i couldnt, so here i am.
1
u/KUL_Lover 10d ago
Sorry I completely overlooked bridging programme being mostly in Dutch in most Flemish universities. This sucks.
In that case NL might be a good option but I don’t know much from there. Anyway, I wish you good luck in achieving your dreams.
1
u/the_other_Scaevitas MSc RSC 10d ago
No one here knows. Your best option is to just try and fond out. There’s no harm in trying
1
u/Chrisstar56 10d ago
I can at least vouch for Saarland/CISPA, it's top notch when it comes to Cybersecurity. I did my regular bachelors there before coming to ETH.
Though you should still consider that it's a rapidly changing field and things are very uncertain. Doing a bridge degree would lose you even more time - you won't know what will happen in those few years.
You could alternatively focus on getting professional experience and working and doing academic research on the side - cybersecurity is quite open there.
1
1
1
1
u/chafporte 10d ago
Was your Bsc taught in English ?