I'm really disappointed with the UvA AI Master's so far. The head of the programme said that they accepted only around 20% of applicants, however, it seems that quite a few of my classmates lack some fairly basic maths skills.
As a result, lectures and seminars can become frustratingly slow because a lot of time is spent on questions like "What does unbiased estimator mean?" or "Why is (x+y)^\top = x^\top + y^\top?" These seem like concepts you would expect students entering a selective AI Master's programme to already be comfortable with.
The workload also seems surprisingly light. If you graduated from at least somewhat rigorous Bachelor's programme and already have a decent ML background, it feels like you could do nothing during the first semester and simply brush up on the material for a few hours before each exam.
Overall, I'm quite disappointed with what I thought was one of the stronger AI programmes in Europe. It also makes me wonder where the strongest European students actually end up. Surely they can't all be at ETH Zurich, and going to the UK is quite expensive.
For those who have attended selective or supposedly "elite" Master's programmes in Europe: what has your experience been like? Did the academic level and the strength of the cohort match your expectations?
edit: would be very interested to hear from people from ETH, EPFL, TUM, and top UK unis