ETH Zurich

For the MS courses offered at ETH Zurich, Indian students are required to be academically inclined and meet certain admission deadlines. These students should have at least 3 years of full-time study and 180 ECTS credits. Look at the other ETH Zurich admission requirements - 

• A relevant UG degree
• A high GPA (like above 8.8 on the scale of 10)
• English proficiency requirements by tests like IELTS or TOEFL
• A Curriculum Vitae 
• Motivation letter
• Recommendation letters

Yes, ETH Zurich is one of the most popular institutions of the world and the Engineering courses offered here are too. 

As per Shiksha Popularity Rankings, these MS courses offered here are ranked #1. Other than Shiksha, the other popular ranking bodies like THE, QS and ARWU have also ranked this institution. Given below are the rankings, take a look -

• Times Higher Education: #3
• QS: #5
• ARWU: #10 

It can be considered really hard to get into the MS courses at ETH Zurich as the overall acceptance rate here is only 10% which can also be the case with the MS courses as well. 

To get in, Indian students are required to work really hard and meet the admission requirements given below - 

• A good GPA
• Extracurriculars
• A great personal essay 

Yes ETH Zurich acceptance rate stands around 27% meaning out of every 100 candidates who apply for its admission process upto 27 will  be accepted. This makes it very hard to get into the university as only onefifth of the applicants will be offered admission

Yes PG students can apply to two different programmes per sem at ETH Zurich. Each application will have a different application number and thus will be evaluated individually. However, you can accept only one place offered even if you get accepted in both 

ETH Zurich specifies that students may have to wait for a few months  after the submission of their application since there is a lot of processing that goes on to have a fair evaluation. They can expect a decision by March end for PG courses.

No students are only allowed to apply to one degree programme at a time. They can do so by selecting their desired programme on the eApply portal of ETH Zurich.

The main language of instruction for Bachelor's degree courses is German. For this German C1 language certificate must be submitted. These shouldnt be older than 3 years.

For master's courses the language of instruction could be both German or English but English proficiency proof is mandatory

Both EPFL and ETH Zurich have the same per semester tuition fees of CHF 2,190 or INR 2.52 Lakhs. Both these universities are operated directly by the Swiss government. The only difference comes in the cost of living.

The cost of living for Indian students at EPFL is CHF 2,393 or INR 2.75 L per month. The same at ETH Zurich is CHF 1,841 or INR 2.12 Lakhs.

So it can be said, ETH Zurich is slightly more affordable.

1 CHF = INR 115.32

Both EPFL and ETH Zurich are considered the leading universities for STEM in Europe. Both offer quality technical education. ETH Zurich generally houses more students. EPFL offers a more diverse campus environment. ETH Zurich is based in a more German-speaking city. EPFL is based in a more French-speaking region.

EPFL is known for its Engineering, Technology, Natural Sciences and Life Sciences programs. ETH stands out for the same programs along with Social Sciences.

Both are very affordable and offer a quality research environment. ETH Zurich (#1 in Switzerland) ranks above EPFL (#2) as part of the latest Shiksha Rankings.