UZH ETH - MS in Quantitative Finance

This Master’s program is jointly offered by the University of Zurich (UZH) and ETH Zürich. The curriculum includes courses from both universities, with the technical and mathematical subjects mainly taught at ETH, and most finance-oriented courses offered by UZH. Since students can choose from a range of electives, the proportion of time spent at each university varies individually. However, it is not possible to complete the degree without taking at least some courses at both institutions.

ETH Zürich

The quality of lectures at ETH is truly outstanding. Every lecturer I had was highly knowledgeable in their field, and many conveyed genuine enthusiasm for the subject matter, which made the classes engaging and inspiring. I was particularly impressed by how many lecturers cared deeply about teaching quality — something that, in my experience, is not always common at European universities. Having completed a STEM Bachelor’s degree at another major European institution, I can confidently say that ETH sets a remarkably high standard for both academic rigor and teaching commitment.

In terms of difficulty, ETH exams ranged roughly between 5 and 9 on a scale of 1 to 10, with some courses I did not take likely reaching a 10. Exams were generally fair and well-graded, reflecting both the course content and the students’ understanding.

University of Zurich (UZH)

The quality of lectures at UZH varied significantly. Some lecturers seemed disengaged and uninterested in teaching, while others were motivated but lacked the ability to deliver clear or structured lectures. Although there were a few excellent courses, I also encountered some of the worst lectures of my academic career at UZH.

Exams at UZH were generally easier than at ETH, ranging from about 2 to 6 in difficulty, though there were some exceptions. Unfortunately, grading was often inconsistent or poorly designed. Many assessments relied on arbitrary grading schemes that seemed intended to simplify marking for teaching assistants rather than to accurately measure student understanding. The few difficult exams were often not challenging because of the content, but because lecturers deliberately made them excessively long or included obscure details only mentioned in passing during class — practices that seemed more punitive than pedagogical.

Overall, I was not satisfied with the UZH component of the program. While I did learn a great deal from the better courses, the weaker ones fell short of the standards expected from a program that markets itself as prestigious. The degree coordinators and academic staff were consistently kind, responsive, and supportive. In contrast, interactions with the broader university administration were often cumbersome and discouraging. The level of bureaucracy was high, and staff outside the program office were generally not accommodating and occasionally impolite when it came to handling uncommon situations such as credit transfers or other non-standard requests.

Career Prospects

The program administration makes commendable efforts to build connections with industry partners and facilitate internships, master’s theses, and networking opportunities. Compared to typical degree programs at ETH, UZH, or other large non-UK universities, this is a definite strength. However, when compared to other specialized programs in quantitative finance, the career support feels somewhat limited. Securing a position outside of Switzerland requires additional effort, as the program’s industry reach is mostly local.

Overall Impression

Overall, I would recommend this degree. It offers excellent learning opportunities and some truly outstanding lectures, particularly at ETH. However, students should choose their courses carefully — ideally consulting those in the year above for advice. Tuition fees are relatively low, although living in Zurich can be expensive. Career opportunities in Switzerland after graduation are good, but internationally they are somewhat limited.

The Master’s program in Quantitative Finance at UZH and ETH Zurich is highly selective, but for good reason. It’s an ambitious and rigorous program designed for mathematically inclined students who want to transition into finance. For anyone with a passion for mathematics, it feels like a playground: you get to dive deep into topics such as stochastic processes, financial modeling, derivative pricing, and optimization theory.

At the same time, the program manages to balance theory and practice very well. While it offers courses with strong mathematical and theoretical foundations, it doesn’t lose itself in abstraction. Students can also choose from more applied, hands-on courses, allowing them to benefit from the best of both worlds provided by two of Europe’s leading universities.

The professors I’ve had were outstanding: highly knowledgeable, engaged, and experts in their fields. Many have strong connections to the finance industry, which brings a pragmatic touch to their teaching and bridges the gap between theory and real-world application.

The curriculum is well structured and diverse, offering courses that range from pure finance to pure mathematics, and everything in between. The program also enjoys the support of numerous industry partners, which strengthens its practical relevance. From my experience, career opportunities in Zurich after graduation are very good. Non-EU students may face additional challenges due to local regulations, but that’s independent of the program itself.

Overall, I would highly recommend this program to anyone who aims to “become a Quant”.

The program is really good, really competitive and it is for sure one of the top programs out there. There are many positive things to it and few negative ones.

Positive side:
The program is very rigorous and the fundamentals part is really heavy, you would have to prepare yourself to get a functional analysis course compacted into two or three weeks if you want to learn about machine learning in finance. You are not aware on how much you’re learning because most of the courses are loaded with material and the content is really advanced. Once you get past the first semester or second you will see some results if you enrol into a Hackathon and/or get an Internship and you get to compare yourself with students from other universities. Another positive part of the program is that you get to surround yourself with a lot of very smart and well prepared people which make it easy to pick up good habits. Also, you would be living in Zurich, which is a city that promotes a very healthy lifestyle, when the exams season comes the daily day routine consists of doing some sort of sport, studying all day and at the evening going to the lake to relax from stress. Students can also chose to do their thesis in any university in the world and because of the prestige of ETH you can get replies from professors from all of the top ranking universities, but many people still prefer to do their master thesis with the help of some company in Switzerland to work on the possibility of a job with them after completing the program. Most of the professors are very well-known, and some even have partnerships with blue-chip banks to develop new technologies.

Negative side:
It is well recognised within the industry but I really believe there should be a person in charge of helping students with career services. There is little to no help at all in this matter. The non-EU citizens struggle with getting a job in Switzerland because of visa requirements. This said, after graduation everyone still has the possibility to go to the UK and work there because of the HPI visa which you can get after completion of the program. Sometimes many people chose to go back to Switzerland because of the high quality of life after working in the UK or some other country for a couple of years. The job market is really tough, but I have heard from people within the industry saying things similar to: “we are just waiting for you to graduate so you can work with us”.

I would definitely recommend the program, also because of the cost. For what you pay and you get it is possibly the best option.

I mostly agree with the previous two reviews in this thread, so I will write my review as an addition to what has already been described there.

The biggest strength of this program is its broad curriculum, composed of highly specialized courses that allow you to go in-depth with the topics of your interest. There are about 80 courses available each year, and many more from other departments (such as informatics and electrical engineering) can be taken but are not listed on the main course list. A significant number of courses are taught by "professors of practice". These classes often consist of practical projects. 7 out of 17 courses I took were of this kind, and they were my favourites. In general, 16 out of 17 courses I took during my studies I would genuinely recommend to others.

This flexibility in curriculum is a double-edged sword. Poor course selection will spread one's focus across multiple topics, and the student will fail to specialize. The Swiss job market is highly competitive, so without a strong specialization, a fresh graduate may have to look for a job elsewhere.

The Alumni Club (ZQFA) is a central for networking and a very helpful source of information. One can get great advice on one's specialization, courses, industry trends, the job market, etc. Implicitly, the club serves as a career service, and it does so very well.

Aside from the highly competitive local job market, another drawback of this program is that exams at UZH are held in June, while ETH offers some exams in early June, but most are in August. Therefore, the program offers less time for summer internships. Nonetheless, many of my peers secured summer or off-season internships, mainly in London, and later landed full-time jobs at those companies.

The PMP program is an excellent opportunity for future portfolio managers. Three teams of students manage a real portfolio (around 2 mil. EUR AUM, the last time I checked), and take the whole set of courses for portfolio management.

Another great specialization is in actuarial sciences/insurance mathematics. ETH Zurich and Zurich in general are among the world's leading insurance hubs. All of my peers who specialized in this field reported exceptionally positive experiences, especially those who landed a job in Zurich.

Last but not least, if you are interested in an academic career, UZH and ETH should position you well for almost all major areas of research in quantitative finance.

The program is overall well-rounded and fast-paced but very flexible. It can be finished in 3 to 10 semesters, probably most students take 4 or more, especially if can't find the job they want or want to pursue a phd and want to further specialize in an area.

We can divide the courses in 2: ETH and UZH
ETH: very theoretical courses, with great variety of electives/external electives available (you can take courses from other departments, so you have access to MATH/CS/..., even electrical engineering department if you want to do a course on power trading for example)
UZH: level of teaching of core courses is lower, however most of applied stuff you'll do comes from seminars/3 credits courses found here or assignments you get at ETH courses. Good amount of practitioners from different parts of finance.

Being part of UZH also gives you access to apply for the PMP program www . cpm . uzh . ch , which is great especially for starting to get experience and obtain contacts with the industry.

Regarding events ETH is especially great as there are many events with prop trading companies and hedge funds all around the years. Though the chances of getting a interview out of them is very limited even if you were to win them...
On the other side I can recommend UZH finance club which hosts free brown bag lunches with important companies all around finance (PE/IB/AM/Banks and Central banks/...)

This said, especially the first semester doesn't give you free time to prepare for internship applications adequately and the career services aren't specialized for our masters. You still have access to ETHgethired and UZH services though. I can vouch for the first one in particular to get a first contact with smaller swiss hedge funds that advertise their positions there (which only hire from EPFL/ETH most often).

As mentioned by others, Switzerland makes it hard for non-Europeans to work after graduation, however is still possible with some work and luck.
In general, for quant positions, especially after the merger ubs-cs, Switzerland remains small in terms of opportunities, but very rewarding. Except for commodities, where Geneva is a major hub (though in that case, EPFL master may be a better alternative due to proximity).

Overall happy, and would choose it again, considering that by working part-time during my masters, I paid both tuition and living expenses.

Overall I must say the program gives you a lot of flexibility in what you want to pursue. From what I've seen, most people are mainly mathematically inclined and tend to focus on stochastic analysis and machine learning subjects. The univeristies offer a lot of selection in these areas. The main drawback I would point out is if you are not from Switzerland or the EU, you most likely will have to relocate after finishing the program (very few I know managed to get fulltime positions in Switzerland), but this is also mentioned in the QuantNet descripiton of the program so wont go into detail here. Overall, very happy with the program.