My exchange application process to ETH Zurich

To all reading this post, welcome to my blog! Just a little background about me, I am Tze Ren, a final year undergraduate from the National University of Singapore studying Applied Mathematics. 

Last semester (Spring 2022), I was fortunate enough to embark on a semester exchange to ETH Zurich. Having been back in Singapore for over a month, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to reflect on my entire journey, from the initial application until the exchange itself. If you’re a junior in NUS who might be considering applying for exchange, I hope you find this blog post useful! :)

So a little background for those unfamiliar – undergraduate students in Singapore are given the opportunity to embark on a semester exchange (year-long exchange is also possible, but a lot rarer).  During exchange, students will attend lessons and take examinations at a partner university overseas, and they are able to use the academic credits that they have acquired with their partner university for their degree requirements back in Singapore. Applications are typically made typically one year in advance before the actual exchange.

Part One: Initial Application

In order to be considered for a semester exchange, students first need to submit an initial application. For those in NUS, different faculties have different windows for exchange applications. Your faculty’s exchange office will send out an email once applications have opened, so keep an eye out for that! Also note that exchange applications have two cycles, however some of the popular universities may have all vacancies filled up after the first round so it is highly encouraged that you apply in round 1!

For reference, the email announcing applications are open will looking something like the picture below

While I cannot comment for other schools/faculties application procedures, this is what my faculty (NUS Faculty of Science) required applicants to submit as part of the process

1. Top 3 choices for exchange (the pdf file sent in the email will contain a link indicating the list of partner universities available to students in the faculty

2. An initial study plan for each of your 3 choices, along with the modules you intend to map back to (for this step, you will have to either refer to the list of previously mapped modules given in the pdf, or use the course catalogue of your potential partner universities. For those planning to apply to ETH, the course catalogue can be found here - it contains all the data from modules of previous semesters, which you can use as reference when crafting your initial study plan!)

3. Statement of estimated cost of study (this will be a rough breakdown of your estimated expenses for your exchange)

 4. Unofficial Transcript (can be downloaded on EduRec)

 5. SEP Terms and Conditions Agreement

 In addition to submitting the above documents, applicants will need to make an online application on EduRec. Note that an interview may also be required as part of exchange applications (especially for the more popular universities). However in my case, since I applied in 2020 when the COVID situation was still highly volatile, the interview was waivered and replaced with questions which we had to fill up as part of our online application.

 Part Two: Results

After submitting an application, results of the first round will typically be out via email within 1-2 months. Personally I received my results around a month after submitting my application, but I’m not sure how fast other faculties will be in this process. 

After receiving your results, all you have to do is to accept the offer on EduRec. That would be all you have to do.... for now.

Part 3: Module Mapping

Ah. Module mapping – this is the part which I dreaded quite a bit because of seniors telling me how notoriously difficult it was to successfully map modules overseas. While I think that is true to some extent (e.g: in the Economics department, they have a fairly strict set of guidelines with regards to what modules you can map for exchange), I think module mapping wasn’t as daunting as I deemed it to be.

Personally, I feel that the tough part of module mapping is that typically you need to do your mappings before the course catalogue for your semester is released. However, by the time your semester’s courses are released, it would probably be around a month before the start of the semester (at least this has always been the case for ETH). This makes the mapping process full of uncertainties, as you never know whether your module mappings can indeed happen. 

However for ETH, core modules tend to stay fixed from year-to-year (e.g: a core module previously offered in Spring should also be offered in the upcoming Spring). Hence it is best to first submit your module mappings based on the course data from previous semesters, and then make necessary changes once the catalogue for your semester actually comes out. Personally, I began my module mapping applications in the middle of semester 1 (when I was going for exchange in semester 2) but only finalised my mappings around 3 weeks before I left Singapore.

(Tip: for those in FoS, several of our majors have a dummy module for exchange XX1991/XX2991/XX3991/XX4991. This allows you to use ANY module from the partner university related to your major as a module to be mapped back. Personally, I mapped one of my courses in ETH to MA4991, which allowed me to clear one of my 4k mod requirements! Pretty good deal imo) 

Part 4: 2^nd application

Around 6 months before your exchange, your partner university’s exchange office will send you an email to apply for exchange. Note that the first application was an internal application within NUS, however the application this time round is for an external application which will be reviewed by your partner university. Depending on your partner university, this application may be pretty lengthy and require several documents (for instance your official transcript, which has to be requested from the Registrar’s Office) so try not to do it last minute! 

Part 5: Official Acceptance + Finding housing/Applying for Visa

Upon reviewing your 2^nd application, if everything is in order, you will get an email from the partner university’s exchange office informing you that your application has been approved. Congratulations! You are now slated to head for exchange :)

 With regards to finding housing, the process differs from country to country. For certain partner universities, you might need to find your own accommodation outside as your university may not have any accommodation options. On the other hand, certain partner universities have ample accommodation on campus so finding housing would not be a problem.

In the case of ETH, there is only one accommodation on campus - the ETH student village, which you can learn more about here. However, the ETH housing office partners with WOKO (a housing cooperative based in Switzerland) to provide accommodation for exchange students so all you have to do is just make an application on their website in order to secure accommodation (for exchange students to ETH, housing is guaranteed as long as you make an application before the deadline). 

Also just a pro-tip if you’re coming to ETH.... unless you have enough $$$ to w̶a̶s̶t̶e̶  spend, PLEASE apply for the housing! Not only is outside accommodation in Zurich extremely difficult to find, WOKO accommodation is much much cheaper than housing market rates in Zurich! Also, applying to WOKO accommodation is the best way for you to meet fellow exchange students :)

Finally, check if you need to apply for Visa to the country of your partner university. For those going to Switzerland, Singapore citizens aren’t required to apply for a Visa 😊

Once you’re done with all this, all that’s left is to count down the number of days before you fly off! (at least I don’t remember doing anything else important) 

Part 6: German Intensive

Note that this part is only applicable for those going to either ETH/UZH (University of Zurich) for exchange. 

While people in Zurich are able to speak English well, Swiss German is still the predominant language used amongst locals. Therefore, the school highly recommends that students have some basic language skills in German and offers a German intensive class for those who may not have background in learning German. This would require you to fly in to Switzerland two weeks earlier to attend German lessons (also, there’s a test at the end of the intensive!)

Note that while this course is useful, it’s not a MUST to have (personally I did not attend it because I wanted to spend more time with my family as it was the Chinese New Year period :P)

Part 7: Conclusion

If you’ve read all the way to the end, I congratulate you for your sheer willpower and determination. Stay tuned for my next blogpost, where I’ll be talking more about my stay in Switzerland! :)