COMPARE EPFL MFE or UZH ETH MQF

[rachel___chen]

Hi guys!
I have been accepted to the financial engineering program in epfl and quantitative program in uzh and eth. It is a hard choice. I am a non european student and, although it is difficult, I want to get a job in Europe(not limited to Switzerland, but if in Switzerland, it is best) after graduation.

For reputation, I think eth is better than epfl either in Europe or outside Europe. However, it is actually a joint program of uzh and eth, and I found the students will matriculate in uzh, and it is likely that eth will just provide courses for us(but all students in uzh can take courses in eth) and give a joint diploma for students at last. This sounds weird and I don't know how the reputation of uzh is in Europe when compared to epfl. That is quite confusing for me.

For course, I can't say which one is better. It seems that epfl concentrates more on programming,eth on mathematics and uzh on finance.And the courses in eth uzh are quite difficult and often the duration of this program may be 2.5 years.

For internship, epfl demands students to have an internship for half a year.I heard it will help students to have a work permit for this internship(only internship).And I am not sure about eth. But for epfl, it may still not be easy to find an internship in Switzerland.

For job,I know it is quite difficult to have the work permit in Switzerland. I didn't learn German before and it seems Swiss German is also another language.For epfl, at least I am an intermediate learner of French and there are actually some non european students who can speak French got jobs in Switzerland before.
I found the employment rate listed in risknet for eth is 100% and for epfl is 81%, and the placement of eth is disclosed on its website.But I still don't know about the placement of these two programs outside Switzerland,like in UK,France,Germany or Netherlands.

It is quite hard to compare these two programs because it is hard to find information about them on websites. Hopefully someone can give me some advice.

Thanks!

 

[TehRaio]

EPFL and ETHZ are "sister" universities. They are both equally top notch.
Look either way you will do fine with a MFE from these two schools. The rest is a matter of whether you'll have a good time while doing it.
Where do you want to live Zurich or Lausanne? Which language seems easier for you to learn?
Do you ever want to work in Germany maybe? so maybe learning swiss german might be a step in that direction. What about France? Maybe learning french might be helpful.

Think about these other things because both schools are excellent.

 

[rachel___chen]

EPFL and ETHZ are "sister" universities. They are both equally top notch.
Look either way you will do fine with a MFE from these two schools. The rest is a matter of whether you'll have a good time while doing it.
Where do you want to live Zurich or Lausanne? Which language seems easier for you to learn?
Do you ever want to work in Germany maybe? so maybe learning swiss german might be a step in that direction. What about France? Maybe learning french might be helpful.

Think about these other things because both schools are excellent.

Actually I have learnt French before and it may be easier for me to speak fluently. On the other hand, although learning German seems challenging but I think it is also interesting to learn it.

But now I also got the admission from the data science in nyu, although it is not a mfe program, it is also a nice program and have nice reputation and placement. It is really hard to compare those different programs with different location.Quiet confusing.

 

[TehRaio]

disclaimer: I'm a Data science student myself, and I'm considering applying for a PhD @ ETHz


Well Rachel, seems like you are quite the student!
Now the question becomes do you want to work in Europe or the US?
Where do you think you'd have a better time as an international student?
Socially speaking, New York is very very international, so that gives you lots opportunities to meet people and network, which would be fantastic for someone interested in Data Science. I have to admit I don't know about the data science / machine learning scene in Switzerland.

What about the cost of studies AND the cost of livings, are there budget constraints to consider?

 

[rachel___chen]

Well,the cost of living in New York is affordable but expensive. It will be nearly twice as much as the budget for Switzerland. But I think there may be more job opportunities in US.

Working in US or Europe both seem to be nice things. The risk for Europe is in the work permit, and for US it is in the future policy for Chinese students. I heard that this year the job seeking of nyu ds become slightly more difficult than before. Actually the number of students are increasing by 20 every year. This year they give admission to more than 100 Chinese students... As a trans student, returning to China soon after graduation doesn't seem to be a nice choice, so the job seeking in US or Europe should be taken as the primary factor for me. PhD is also a nice choice, but I think neither will be easy.

As for data science in Switzerland, many theses of graduates these years in qf@eth are related to machine learning.

In addition, the policy in US for trans people(medical insurance and employment) may be more friendly, but also there may be more hate crimes(have no idea about New York). And I am not sure about how Europe is.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

Do you ever want to work in Germany maybe? so maybe learning swiss german might be a step in that direction

If you want to work in Germany, learn German. Swiss German is not the same.