Polytechnic University of Lausanne. General admission requirements

21.10.2019

Leave for Switzerland educational program exchange semester at ITMO University, and return as a master's student at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) - a graduate of the department information systems Alexander Mylnikov knows how to do it. In an interview with our portal, he told why he liked the Swiss education system so much and why students need to change universities during their studies.

How to leave for a semester in one of best universities Europe and stay there for two years. Alexander Mylnikov

Why did you choose the exchange semester program with EPFL?

The decision to go to study in Switzerland was quite difficult for me. This is a very expensive country to live in, but at the same time, the exchange program with a university in Lausanne is one of the best that operates at ITMO University. I am really grateful to the university for giving me such an opportunity. Moreover, students who come to EPFL for an exchange semester do not have to pay tuition fees. But if you study there permanently, then you have to pay state tax - about 633 francs per semester ( about 40 thousand rubles). I also tried to apply for the exchange semester program at Aalto University, the University of Jyväskylä, and also at the University of Paris. But, unfortunately, my applications to these universities were rejected, as the deadline was overdue. And as an exception, I was admitted to the Polytechnic School of Lausanne even after the deadline for submitting documents. I think in the end it was the best option for me.

Did you have any advantages in enrolling in a master's program at EPFL?

No, because I only studied in Lausanne for half a year. If I spent a year there, it might somehow affect my enrollment. In general, the conditions for admission there are absolutely the same for everyone: for the Swiss, Russians, Americans, and at least for aliens. EPFL has two deadlines for applying for admission to the master's program: in January and in March. I really wanted to enter a foreign university, but first I decided to try, will I like living abroad at all? Can I? I didn't have this experience before. Therefore, I first studied for some time under the exchange semester program, and then in March I applied for admission to the magistracy of the Polytechnic School. The selection process for students at EPFL is completely closed. You just submit Required documents, and a month later you receive an e-mail with a decision on enrollment. Of course, admission committee The Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne has its own selection criteria, but you cannot know exactly how the final decision is made. For me, this month of waiting was very exciting - I really wanted to enter and would have been upset if the competition had not passed.

What motivated you to enter EPFL so much?

Firstly, many advise that during the training you need to try several universities - preferably in other countries. This broadens the horizons, makes it possible to acquire non-standard skills. Secondly, the atmosphere at the university in Lausanne was very motivating. The people there are very friendly and open, and the environment is accessible and comfortable. The attitude towards international students at the university is very friendly. Before leaving for Switzerland, I was a little worried about how other students would treat me. But people at the university in Lausanne don't pay attention to your nationality at all. Rather, they are even interested in talking with the Russians, because there are very few citizens of the Russian Federation there. Absolutely everything is on an equal footing, everyone follows certain rules. In addition, I really liked that the educational courses are taught by professors who are heads of laboratories and most life study their narrow subject.

Recently, I occasionally call myself the buzzword “blogger”. The main topic of my blog posts, I think, as you might guess, travel. Accordingly, I hope (so far unsuccessfully) that the same travel-obsessed people will come to my blog. However, since SEO questions are still only in the process of mastering, they find me for completely different requests - and most often about studying at the EPFL University.
Some people even write letters and messages! What makes me happy every time, and I always try to help them and tell them everything I know. Graduate studies are easy - I've gone through all this myself, and I can speak from my own experience. With a master's degree, it is more difficult, but also normal - some of the current graduate students went to advance science after the EPFL master's degree, so there is someone to clarify the necessary information. However, a few months ago I received a question about undergraduate studies. The question puzzled me - I do not know Russian bachelors here, I had to make some efforts.
So, how to enter EPFL for undergraduate studies? First, we read the official sources.

Who is eligible for 1 year Bachelor's degree?

Swiss students who have passed their school-leaving exams (maturité gymnasiale) get the green light and don't have to do anything, they are automatically accepted. For Europeans (residents of the EU), the conditions are also free - having a good certificate from a school with a scientific orientation and knowledge of French at level B2 (or better C1), they can also go to study without passing exams. Similar criteria for owners of a mysterious beast named I-Be (I.B. - International Baccalaureat).
What should everyone else do? There are two possibilities - either to go to a preparatory course, or to take an entrance exam.
Passing exams, having only a school certificate in hand, EPFL strongly advises against. But if suddenly someone decides - a fee of 800 francs, registration - in the fall, the exam itself at the end of January.
Preparatory Course called CMS - Special Mathematics Course. The course runs for a whole year, and following its results, you can enroll in any undergraduate program at EPFL. How to get there? The main requirements are to have a good diploma (80%, i.e. GPA- at least 4) and a certificate confirming knowledge of French at level B2. Admission to the CMS is not guaranteed, but decided on a case-by-case basis on the basis of the dossier, in case there are vacancies.

How to apply?

Online, from mid-January to April 30. For documents that you do not have on hand at the time of confirmation of your application on April 30 - for example, a school diploma - there is a second deadline - July 15. By July 15 at the latest, all documents must be added to your file. For the consideration of your documents, the university requires a fee of 150 francs - this is if you are not Swiss, they take only 50 from your own. The results are reported around mid-August. Among the necessary documents, by the way, is a copy of all marks received in the last two years of the school.

How does it actually happen?

As one bachelor student told me, everyone is taken to CMS - simply because there are not very many applicants. I don’t know how true this is - therefore I advise you to check it empirically 🙂 However, we must remember that in order to enter the EPFL, getting into the course is not enough - you also need to study well. Many do not withstand the load and fly out of this course. There are 8 subjects on the course - two different analyzes, geometry, physics, chemistry, biology, algebra. The eighth subject is an elective from programming, descriptive geometry and applied mathematics. In total, if everything is summed up, it turns out, indeed, as stated in the title of the course - solid mathematics, 22 hours a week.
My friend told me that out of 113 students who came in September, about 50 graduated from his course. successful completion you need to have an average score in all subjects in the fall semester - 3.5 out of 6, and in the spring - 4 out of 6. From my point of view, a somewhat strange approach - it turns out that you can fill up one subject and pass the rest perfectly, and still pass successfully, but here and on regular courses similar scheme.
The last exams are held in the first week of June, and the results are known by the end of the month.

News for the curious At the end of June, at the Large Hadron Collider, sensors registered the appearance of new exotic particles. The most interesting thing is that most of us do not know what it is, and the only thing that can be said about the Large Hadron Collider is that it is simply "Big". Therefore, we agree that this discovery is very important for humanity and move on to other news. We all know that man appeared in the course of evolution. But do we continue to evolve? Evolutionist and geneticist at Harvard University, Jonathan Beauchamp, responded positively to this question. The scientist proved that, at least, Americans are still under the pressure of natural selection, which is the main engine of evolution. Until now, it was believed that people stopped evolving about 40-50 thousand years ago. However, evidence suggests that human evolution continues at the present moment. Over the past 3,000 years, people have adapted to consuming lactose (before, people could not drink milk), developed resistance to malaria, and adapted to high mountain climates. Such adaptation is the result of natural selection and, like any natural selection, leads to an increase in fertility. As a result, scientists found that the most reproductive women with high body weight or short stature, as well as the least educated representatives of both sexes. And for some reason this conclusion worries me, if it goes on like this, then in 3,000 years there will be a lot of fat short women on the planet, and education will be nowhere lower. But I hope that doesn't happen. The Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne announced that a microscopic device is being developed that will ensure uninterrupted wine production. The inventor of the Microchip Winery is Daniel Attinger. He and his colleagues believe that such a microscopic winery will allow a better understanding of the fermentation processes, on which the quality of wine depends in the first place. After all, as you know, the taste and aroma of wine depends on the type of yeast used. The productivity of such a micro-factory is a milliliter of drink per hour. But the point here is not in volume, but in speed, because the standard alcoholic fermentation procedure takes up to two weeks. The principle of operation is that grape juice passes through a device in which yeast is placed, separated by an ultra-thin membrane with nanopores. By absorbing sugar, the yeast saturates the grape juice with alcohol and carbon dioxide. If scientists continue to develop their invention, then each of us will be able to quickly produce any kind of wine in our kitchen. Researchers from the University of Zurich are training robots to behave like predators and hunt prey, and, according to scientists, this is done for the benefit of all mankind. Experts teach robots to see, track and catch prey using a smaller robot as a victim. The main task of scientists is to create software that recognizes targets around. Project leader Tobi Delbruck believes that his work will help create, for example, luggage carts that will follow people and carry luggage. Also, Toby Delbrück is the creator of the "silicon retina", which imitates the device of the mammalian eye and is capable of transmitting information in real time. Data from such a retina is processed by a neural network. It can be said that thanks to such research, we are getting closer and closer to the creation of real cyborgs, but for some reason I have a little doubt about the good intentions of this scientist. Some sad news for Harry Potter fans. Engineers from the University of Texas at Austin have proven that it is not possible to create a device that makes large objects completely invisible using passive metamaterials, i.e. materials that work without extraneous energy sources. The results of the study showed that the performance of invisibility devices strongly depends on the ratio of the size of the object and the wavelength of the light falling on it. This means that passive metamaterials cannot make a tank, aircraft or person invisible to the human eye. But there is still hope! Scientists believe that it is possible to achieve the effect of invisibility using active cloaking, that is, by connecting electromagnetic cloaks to an external power source. So, friends! If you have interesting news - send us an email, which is indicated in the description of this video! And also subscribe to the channel Interesting facts!

To leave for Switzerland on the educational program of the ITMO University exchange semester, and return as a master's student at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) - Alexander Mylnikov, a graduate of the Department of Information Systems, knows how to do it. In an interview with our portal, he told why he liked the Swiss education system so much and why students need to change universities during their studies.

How to leave for a semester to one of the best universities in Europe and stay there for two years. Alexander Mylnikov

Why did you choose the exchange semester program with EPFL?

Did you have any advantages in enrolling in a master's program at EPFL?

No, because I only studied in Lausanne for half a year. If I spent a year there, it might somehow affect my enrollment. In general, the conditions for admission there are absolutely the same for everyone: for the Swiss, Russians, Americans, and at least for aliens. EPFL has two deadlines for applying for admission to the master's program: in January and in March. I really wanted to enter a foreign university, but first I decided to try, will I like living abroad at all? Can I? I didn't have this experience before. Therefore, I first studied for some time under the exchange semester program, and then in March I applied for admission to the magistracy of the Polytechnic School. The selection process for students at EPFL is completely closed. You simply submit the necessary documents, and a month later you receive an e-mail with a decision on enrollment. Of course, the admission committee of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne has its own selection criteria, but you cannot know exactly how the final decision is made. For me, this month of waiting was very exciting - I really wanted to enter and would have been upset if the competition had not passed.

What motivated you to enter EPFL so much?

Firstly, many advise that during the training you need to try several universities - preferably in other countries. This broadens the horizons, makes it possible to acquire non-standard skills. Secondly, the atmosphere at the university in Lausanne was very motivating. The people there are very friendly and open, and the environment is accessible and comfortable. The attitude towards international students at the university is very friendly. Before leaving for Switzerland, I was a little worried about how other students would treat me. But people at the university in Lausanne don't pay attention to your nationality at all. Rather, they are even interested in talking with the Russians, because there are very few citizens of the Russian Federation there. Absolutely everything is on an equal footing, everyone follows certain rules. In addition, I really liked that the educational courses are taught by professors who are the heads of laboratories and spend most of their lives studying their narrow topics.

Lausanne is considered an international, cultural, dynamic, high-tech city. This is the official residence of many international organizations: the UN, the WTO, CERN, etc. In many ways, all this determined the fact that the Polytechnic School of Lausanne has become one of the most prestigious federal educational institutions v Western Europe. In 1969 the school became technical university. It is often compared with Institute of Technology Massachusetts in the USA. In 2011, according to The Times Higher Education ranking, the institution took 11th place in the list of the best European universities and 48th place among the best world universities.

Education

Currently, the EPFL includes faculties:

Biology;
Social Sciences;
Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science;
Economy;
Architecture, construction and ecology;
Mathematics, physics and chemistry;
Informatics and communication systems.

There are 13 different areas of education: architecture, fundamental, natural, engineering sciences, technologies, etc. Since 2003, the institute's curriculum has been supplemented with new disciplines in natural sciences. Specialties appeared: engineer-agronomist and engineer-forester. EPFL is the only university in Switzerland that trains microtechnologists and communication systems engineers.

The school is a member of the TIME (Top Industrial Managers for Europe) educational network, which was established in 1989 and united more than 50 European technical universities. In addition, the Institute is a partner of 150 universities around the world, which contributes to the active exchange of students, including representatives of 80 countries. about half teaching staff are foreigners, as a rule, immigrants from America and Europe. The main language of instruction is French, but many curricula taught in English.

Location

In 1943, the school was located on the grounds of the old Savoy Hotel in Lausanne. Later, a large campus was built in Dorigny, near the University of Lausanne. Since then, the campus has been constantly expanded with new laboratories, training and conference centers, student residences, etc. In 2009, the Polytechnic School of Lausanne ranked first among environmental campuses. This was facilitated by the construction of our own experimental thermal power plant for heating campus buildings, which covered about 90% of the total electricity consumption.

On the shore of Lake Leman, the school has a sports center in common with the University of Lausanne, which allows you to practice water and land sports. Lausanne, located on the shores of the world-famous Lake Geneva, is a very convenient place for both study and recreation. Always in the city rich life because half of its inhabitants are students. There are a large number of museums in Lausanne: art, photography, the Olympic Museum, etc. In cinemas offering a wide variety of programs, all students enjoy a discount. The campus of the institute is located 10 minutes from the center by metro.

The Lake Geneva region is actively developing and provides motivated graduates with excellent opportunities for professional and academic growth. A university in Switzerland is a prestigious and high-quality study abroad, providing excellent life prospects.