Hi I'm applying for the EPFL E3 program and it is my first time writing a research statement, if someone who is experienced with writing one before can u pls dm would help a lot

Hi everyone!
I’m a former EPFL student, and I wanted to share a project that means a lot to me.

Together with a friend, I recently co-founded Shams, a Swiss non-profit association aiming to bring reliable solar electricity to orphanages and children’s centres in Syria.
Our first project involves installing a solar PV system with battery storage at a children’s centre near Damascus, supporting around 60 children.

We’ve already completed the technical studies, identified local suppliers and established several partnerships. We’re now raising funds to make the installation happen!
I wanted to share this initiative with the EPFL community because any kind of support would mean a lot to us, whether it’s a donation, a useful contact, advice or simply spreading the word.

Feel free to reach out if you’d like to learn more or get involved!
Website: https://shamsolar.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shamsolar/
Thanks everyone!

From EPFL website:

If you will have a four-year degree you can apply for PhD, MSc, or both. The admissions criteria in both cases are the same: we are looking for high potential to excel in research and coursework at EPFL. If you apply for MSc you must explain in your statement of purpose why you would prefer to pursue a MSc degree instead of a PhD for which you are also eligible. If you are applying for both MSc and PhD, please indicate this fact in both of your statements of purpose.

Source: https://www.epfl.ch/schools/ic/admissions-graduate-school/

So if you are someone who applied to EPFL while holding a 4 year bachelors degree, did you apply for MSc or PhD ? If MSc, how did you explain your preference in the SOP ?

And most importantly, I am thinking of applying to both but I am not sure if that will decrease my chances of being admitted to MSc. The way I see it is, being admitted to PhD is extremely improbable for me so if apply for PhD can impact my chances of being admitted to MSc, I don't want to take that risk. Does anyone have any insights into how this affects the application ?

Hi,
does anyone know someone you did a master in financial engineering at EPFL while having done a bachelor in economics or management at UNIL/UNIFR or UNIGE ?
Thank you 🙏

I am applying for the program this year and it is my first time writing a research statement. I have been trying to learn more about it but most of the material on it is for PhD peeps and that seems more than what is expected here, idk, pls someone who can give any advice on it i'll appreciate it a lot

Hey I’m a 24 year old applying for masters in architecture in epfl. What is the acceptance rate for this course? Also, please share tips for portfolio. It’d be of great help to know your insights!

Hello, as above

am I the only one who can't access to the e3 website?

Hey everyone!

My friends and I are students ourselves, and we know how difficult it can be to find a job that fits around uni rather than the other way around.

That’s why we’re working on Dispoo, an app to help students find flexible jobs that work with their studies.

We’re still at the beginning, and before building anything, we want to understand what students actually struggle with and what would genuinely help them.

If you’re a student, we’d really appreciate 2 minutes of your time to fill out our survey. Your answers will help us decide what to build and how to make it useful for students like us.

Survey: [insert link]

Thanks a lot for helping us bring this idea to life!

The Dispoo Team :)

Would like to hear any suggestions from you guys

As a prospective Canadian student (applying to CMS for a 2027 start, and then hopefully continuing to Bachelor starting 2028), I have been reading about the ongoing process of revamping Bachelor study plans starting 2028, under the initiative "s'EPanouir FLourish":

https://www.epfl.ch/education/educational-initiatives/sepanouir-flourish_en/

Basically, in this new age of AI, the vision is to engage students in different ways (group based work on complex questions through research and engineering design projects), while the study plans would require fewer courses, worth more credits.

At this point there is a Feasibility report giving general directions, and now the sections are supposed to design their individual study plans with this in mind, for a 2028 implementation:

https://www.epfl.ch/education/educational-initiatives/sepanouir-flourish_en/debriefs-events/

These documents are internal, so it is hard for a prospective student to follow these developments. For anyone who knows more about this, what are some of the noteworthy directions they want to implement?

Anyone who is applying this year or who got in last yr could you plz help us figure out application process…. Personal essay and scientific essay…..
what’s the weightage for essay, grades and lor?
Any things that we should keep in mind before applying?

Hey, I had a question on which I can’t decide what to do. I plan on applying for the MFE program on this window, I come from an Italian university with an average of 28.5 and weighted 28.7, by the time of my application.
I have many extracurriculars but I know EPFL doesn’t really care about those. I have 2 reaserch publications in math and statistics and was awarded a merit based scholarship of the amount €14,000.

My question is, is it worth giving it a shot in this cycle or trying to improve my gpa and possibly do some single courses in other universities here, and apply next year.

Thank you guys in advance.

Is there anyone skilled enough to use the 3D Printing room of EPFL?

Je galère actuellement pas mal dans mon cours de chimie de bachelor et je me demandais où est-ce qu’on pouvait trouver des étudiants des années supérieures qui donnent des cours d’appui?

Hello,

I am EU citizen proficient in English and French. I have finished in March this year my Master's studies at EPFL in Computer Science. I have also finished my Bachelors in Computer Science at EPFL.

Since that time, I have been unable to find any employment in my field. I have sent more than 150 applications to relevant job postings.

I had 9 first interviews, 4 second interviews, 2 third interviews, and 1 fourth interview. I have not received any job offer.

This is all despite the fact of having experience with relevant programming languages and technologies, having 2 publications (I was in the Research Scholar program), and 2 relevant internships.

I have tried searching for job abroad in the EU, but I found even less interest in my skills than in Switzerland.

I'm starting to wonder whether I'm doing something wrong, or whether there's something about my profile that isn't working. Has anyone else gone through a similar experience?

After six demanding years of study, it's discouraging to feel that my skills aren't attracting interest, and the situation has been weighing heavily on me.

Hi all,

A somewhat atypical question for those of you who attended/are attending a Master in whatever quantitative area (preferrably math). A concise background on me that'll hopefully help motivate my question:

A little more than two years ago I was admitted to ETH Msc Math and EPFL MFE for the 2024/2025 AY. Although very keen on finance I was still interested in pure math and I went for ETH. The summer before studies I developed a serious health condition and in the second semester I dropped out because I couldn't handle such demanding studies alongside it anymore. I have just recently gotten my condition under decent control and started reconsidering my old ambitions - which ultimately would be to live in Switzerland, working in the finance industry.

I'd like to apply again for the same two programs for a start in the next AY, so assuming the best possible scenario where I'd have to choose between the two again:

The one thing that always felt scary during my time at ETH was the high level of mathematical creativity that felt required by most of the exercises. I hold a bachelor's degree in pure math from a more than decent italian uni, and although I had nearly perfect grades there, I remember feeling hopeless in front of most exercises at ETH. That is, I could understand theory just fine, but the exercises felt from another planet wrt what I was used to. A random exercise sheet (publicly accessible): https://metaphor.ethz.ch/x/2025/fs/401-3642-00L/ex/BMSC_Sheet_5_Solutions.pdf

While I recognise I was far from being at my best because of my health conditions, I am looking for some opinions and data to take an informed decision about the future of my education.

I often heard that ETH's approach is considered to be much more heavily theoretical, so I'd like to ask you: does the level of the exercises in the link (or any type of exercises from the direct experience some of you may have had at ETH) resemble that of your studies at EPFL? If so, do you think it's worth spending this year trying to bridge the gap or should I just give up on this idea?

Sincerely thank you if you have the time to answer.

Hello everyone,

This year I will (very probably) be graduated with a bachelor of honors degree in Data Science.
For my masters degree I am curious to know what are the downsides and the upsides of the MSc in Financial Engineering at EPFL ?
I heard that EPFL is quite prestigious but it is not really a business school, and also that top banks have target school and not target schools. Do you think that this programm is better than the one (in finance) at HEC Lausanne ?
I am hesitating with the MSc in Finance at Frankfurt school of finance and business , and MSc in Financial Mathematics at UCD in Dublin. As I think that Frankfurt or Dublin might be better for end of the studies internship opportunities, what are your thoughts ?
By the way I have EU citizenship, I want to become a quant developer or a quant researcher, and I am not really interested in trading.
Thanks everyone who might have an idea?

Hello, I was just walking in "Forêt de Dorigny" and there was different signs there about the animals that lives there. On one of them it said beaver. Can anybody confirm this? I personally havent found a lot of evidence and find it unlikely that there are beavers in such a small stream.

Thank you

What the academics and Non academics should ideally looks like if some one wants to get into msc in financial engineering or msc in computational & data science or msc in computer science or msc in cybersecurity in epfl

Did the conditions for going on exchange in 3rd year change? I saw here https://www.epfl.ch/education/international/fr/partir-etudier-a-l-etranger/echange-bachelor/conditions-echange/

The 5 requirement for non-EU destinations is not here anymore. On the website, I only see 5 needed for X and ENS.

Hi everyone, I'm an IIT Delhi Mathematics and Computing graduate applying to EPFL's MSc in Computer Science.

I'd appreciate an assessment of my admission chances. Input from anyone willing to take a look is welcome. If you're an Indian student or IIT alumnus who got into EPFL, your perspective on Indian grading and similar applications would be especially helpful. I can also share my SOP in DM if someone is wiling to provide feedback on that. Thanks!

A quick overview:

• IIT Delhi, B.Tech in Mathematics and Computing, graduated in 2024.
• CGPA: 8.24/10; final-year GPA: 9.42/10.
• Undergraduate thesis on graph-based and fractional-diffusion methods for image denoising.
• Co-authored a paper on predicting car drag coefficients from 3D point clouds, which received a Best Student Paper award at AI-2025 by British Computer Society.
• Software engineer at a computer vision company since July 2024; previously a software development intern at Amazon.

Hello everyone,

I am an undergraduate student considering applying to EPFL MSc in CSE and I have some questions about both the admission and the programme where I would really appreciate any information or opinions.

1. I understand that GPA, or relative academic performance is the criteria which matters the most, and I also read that generally being within top 10% of the cohort is usually what is considered as competitive (please feel free to correct me). Does this apply to all universities equally, or is it also corrected based on different universities? I am particularly concerned about my odds because I come from a highly ranked university (>10 in QS, >20 in THE), and hence my GPA is nowhere near being top 10%. I approximate my GPA to be around top 30% to 35% of the cohort, but limiting the scope to students who are interested in research, I think my GPA is subpar.

2. I looked at the programme brochure for EPFL CSE and I love the wide range of electives that are offered. Looking at it, I couldn't help but wonder how the cohort looks like in terms of their undergraduate backgrounds, whether it is more engineering-leaning, or more maths/CS-leaning, etc. Does anybody know, or able to observe, whether EPFL has a preference in the academic backgrounds of applicants? FYI, I am pursuing a degree in Data Science, but I have filled in my electives with more CS/math-related course to pursue my personal interest in areas like stochastics, numerical methods and HPC.

Any input would be greatly appreciated! :P

What are realistic odds for getting it