<aside> đź’ˇ A web version (better for monitors) available at https://weijiang1998.notion.site/2021-Fall-EPFL-Exchange-Report-558a83fc6e904548872fd4dab4bfb77c
</aside>
I’m a master student in Robotics, and I had a wonderful exchange to EPFL in 2021 Fall semester, which is in my second year of master’s study. In this report, will introduce my exchange experience as an international (Chinese) student in time order (roughly).
EPFL is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, together with ETH Zurich, and it possesses world-class academic reputation in engineering. Its campus locates at the north side of Lake Geneva and west part of Lausanne. In a sunny day, one can have a splendid view from the campus that brings the snowy (pre) alps and grand Geneva lake together. In autumn, I often went for a walk along the shores to relax myself in the gentle wave sounds and flickering sun lights.
Lausanne belongs to the Canton Vaud, which is part of the French-speaking area in Switzerland. While most master-level courses are given in English, the people there speak French in their life, and most cantonal documents and websites are written in French. EPFL offers an intensive French course before the start of autumn semester, which could make the daily life there easier. But it’s ok to speak English (works maybe 75% of time), although it’s not as widely-accepted as in Helsinki.
I was assigned to EPFL’s Microengineering section for the exchange, because my planned courses are mainly from the Robotics program at EPFL. But luckily, EPFL is actually quite flexible about course selection for exchange students, as long as we don’t take restricted courses AND we discuss the reasons with the coordinator.
The table below briefly summarizes my timeline for study and visa application. While the exact dates may vary from person to person, this table should give a general sense about how long the tasks would take.
| Time | Task Summary |
|---|---|
| from October 2020 | Find exchange destinations and courses |
| 10th Jan - 31th Jan 2021 | Prepare documents and submit application at Aalto |
| 24th Feb. 2021 | Selected for exchange at EPFL |
| 7th April 2021 | Submit application at EPFL’s portal |
| 25th May 2021 | Officially accepted by EPFL |
| 28th May 2021 | Apply for Aalto Exchange Scholarship |
| 24th June 2021 | Mail visa application documents to Swiss embassy |
| 27th July 2021 | Visa approved, mail passport to Swiss Embassy |
Actually, I began to plan my exchange quite early, because of the tight timeline of master’s study. Generally, I followed the steps in the exchange info website on Into. This website is well organized, which clearly tells what’s needed when before, during and after exchange. And the information is actively updated, so be sure to follow the website for latest instructions.
The study plan (aka learning agreement) could take some time to prepare. But I think the first task is to make clear the purpose and expectations for this exchange study, and select destinations and courses based on your interests and needs.
For the learning agreement, EPFL allows exchange students to select both bachelor and master courses, except for those in the Faculty of Management of Technology (including convex optimization, sad) and some restricted courses. But honestly there are a lot of courses on offer, and I liked quite some courses, but I could only take several. In terms of credits, EPFL requires 20-30 ECTS per semester, and Aalto required 30 ECTS per semester when I applied (24ECTS for master students as of Feb 2022).
Students going out at the second autumn semester (like me) would probably select destinations and courses in January, and set out for exchange in September. There’s quite a whole spring semester and a summer in between, so a lot of things could happen, but luckily changes are possible. Whenever you want to make changes, be sure to kindly communicate with your coordinators. Specifically, here are coordinators related to your exchange, 1) your program coordinator at Aalto, 2) outgoing exchange coordinator(s) at Aalto and 3) exchange coordinator at EPFL. From my experience, they are quite flexible with my course selections, and I did make some changes to my study plan because I took a new course that was not available when making the plan, and another planned course was not offered anymore. So the really important things is how these courses will be included into your degree at Aalto, and my program coordinator suggested transferring all the credits to ABR-ELEC, a special course for exchange study.
To prepare the learning agreement, I signed the study plan form and send it to my program coordinator at Aalto, who helped me obtain approval from a professor in my major. I think it’s reasonable reserve about 2 weeks for this step, so don’t push everything to the last week. Besides, you may also need to submit this form later to the host university, once admitted to the exchange.
Aalto has quite a lot of partner universities, mostly in Europe and some in Asia. But some may not be available for certain reasons, so be sure to double check the destination list on Into or the destination database shortly before submitting the application to Aalto’s system. The main application round is in January, and you can apply for an exchange in both spring and autumn semester. EPFL is a popular destination, and the available places usually run out in the main round.
The application process at Aalto is quite easy. Apart form the learning agreement, you probably need to prepare a proof of language proficiency, based on the course instruction language at the host university. If you took an English course (like LC-1310) in the first semester, the grades will be available when submitting the exchange application (hopefully), and the grades of this course will be sufficient. But I didn’t, so I just used my IELTS grades, luckily it didn’t expire.