Hi guys,
I'm new here. I'm a MSc student at Graz in Austria (1st of 4 master semesters), but am currently on an exchange semester in the US at University of Vermont until December. I have a BSc in Molecular Biology and my current program is called "Biochemistry and Biomedical Research".
I've been looking into where I want to do my PhD, as I wanna go into research, and my first choice would be the ETH.
I was wondering, does anyone here know how hard it is to get into the Life Science PhD program they have? Obviously, being admitted for a BSc or MSc seems to be very hard...
I don't have a perfect GPA, I had 1.5 (1 being the best and 4 the worst passing grade) for my BSc which I finished in the minimum amount of time of 3 years. However, out of 280 people who started with me, about 100 dropped out and of the rest, about max. 20 managed to graduate this summer in the minimum amount of time, with their GPA around 3.x.
In addition, I volunteered to do a 6 week lab project for my BSc, while students at my university are only required to do literary research and write a "review" of about 20 pages for their BSc.
I also speak German (native), English, Italian and a bit of Russian and this is my second time in the US.
Is there a chance that I get into the ETH for my PhD? How hard is it to get in? What is the acceptance rate? Are there any specific qualifications they are looking for?
Please answer me, any help or advice will be appreciated!
- 4symmetry (asymmetry) ^^
Your best plan is to find a professor you want to work with and sending them an email with a nice covering letter and a good academic CV.
Nobody on this forum will give you a percentage chance of getting into a PhD at ETHz...but as with most things in life it's who you know rather than what you know.
Send an email showing your interest in their particular field of research and why you would be awesome and pray they have a slow email day.
Thank you for your quick reply!
Is that because nobody knows a percentage or because it's a secret? :P
Sending an e-mail to a prof seems like a good idea... If i apply to the Life Science program, do you know if I have to have a mentor beforehand? They don't specify that online, I think. As far as I've seen you only have to submit your application and letters of reference.
By "it's who you know rather than what you know"... do you mean it's easier for locals to get into ETH? Or do you mean it's about strong letters of reference?
By that I mean that if your current supervisor knows someone at ETHz and can make a phone call for you then you are already ahead of the pack.
A professor will be much happier to drop several million francs of funding on someone who comes with a recommendation from someone they trust rather than Joe Bloggs with a good GPA.
ETH will be fiercely competitive to get into for a PhD program.
Hi
as porsch1909 said, no one will be able to give you an exact answer. ETH or EPFL are not like US universities where you could get an idea of chances based on your GRE or GMAT score.
The tried (and often successful) route is to spot a professor or group of your field of interest, and ask for a 3-6 months project/internship. Then use this time to demonstrate your abilities and research potential. If your prof is happy , he could easily manage to offer you the PhD position.
Although the admission to university are handled by different dept, a recommendation by a professor almost guarantees the place. Also note that ETH and EPFL are very very competitive to get in.
Also look at EPFL website, they have a summer program for students like you, again they select 20-30 out of hundreds that apply for a summer internship.
what you say is correct expect that PhD students are not that well paid
Thank you very much, this is extremely informative.
Just to clarify, I'm NOT from the US. I study in Austria, and I'm assuming that the University system in Switzerland is similar to that in Austria.
Any other advice and opinions are more than welcome!
I never said they are paid that much, but that's how much research costs in total.
The 60k they earn is just a drop in the ocean compared to lab costs and cost of maintaining equipment. EU research grants are rarely less than 1 million francs.
Thanks, yeah, I don't expect to get rich I only wanna have a good degree and be able to survive on my salary, hopefully without struggling.
In Graz where I currently study (Austria), you get about 1300€ after deductions if you get into the PhD program.
According to lifescience-graduateschool.com you get 3200 CHF before deductions as a PhD student, which should get me by if the costs of living of 2000+ CHF posted there are correct, too.
That's the salary for PhD students at EFPL.
http://phd.epfl.ch/page-19722-en.html
ETH would be much the same...perhaps more due to higher living costs in Zurich than Lausanne.
sure, and anyways money is out of equation when doing PhD , Post Doc ; I only know professors with good salaries and rest of research staff with low economical benefit but high intellectual satisfaction (at least that is what they told me).
coming back to your original question; a secured route would be to come and spend some time at ETH, if you manage to impress your prof , you get the place.
PhDs are usually paid (unless they are really desperate)
Post docs get paid about 80k in Switzerland.
So why is money out of the equation?
Ok just for clarification, I'd apply for the Life Science graduate school. There is no guesswork about your salary there, it's posted right here:
http://www.lifescience-graduateschool.ch/?id=263#3.7
As stated in my previous post.
I guess for me money is "out of the equation" in the sense that I won't choose my PhD at all according to what I earn in money, but in knowledge and investment in my career. As long as I get by and can comfortably live without having to flip burgers at McDonalds, the salary will be fine with me.
I'm just worried about the application, especially if it's a "vitamin B" kind of thing.
How long are summer internships, usally?
And is there any German forum where I can discuss topics like this? I only came here because I didn't find a different forum
We aren't allowed to link to other forums on EnglishForums. Sorry. It's what the admin have decreed and we have to follow it.
Oh that's okay. I didn't know
If I wanted to do an internship, how would that work? I have 3 months of summer holidays this summer and another 3 after that when I should already have my MSc. So 3-6 months seems a bit long... Especially if I'd have to start my PhD in Austria in Oktober in case I don't get into the ETH.
For german info check our sister forum
http://www.toytowngermany.com/
I don't need anything about Germany, I was just wondering if there's a Swiss native forum for students or at least where student issues like this can be discussed, as I'm AUSTRIAN and speak German.
ah.. I misunderstood. My bad.
No prob Thanks tho for taking the time to answer.
80K after PhD is peanuts man. I did mean that they work for free, but a 80K salary to me is nothing.