r/EPFL

Hi I was wondering if there is a group chat/ discord for masters student coming in this September. Looking for a place to ask some questions (housing, visa, etc) and also to get to know some people

Hi all!
Anyone heard back from the school for April deadline PhD program??
It seems decision would be sent out mid-May, but haven't heard anything....

Hi everyone. I am an incoming Master student for Robotics program at EPFL. I am also a third country national, although currently studying with a residence permit in a European country.

I will need to apply for a residence permit (type B I guess) to live and study in Lausanne. From what I know, we should apply at least 2 months before the start of studies. However, there's conflicting information online on whether the housing contract is necessary for the application.

I won't get anything at FMEL, so I have been searching for outside offers (e.g. flatfox). What I noticed is that there are almost no ads yet for housing for later rent period (with possible rent start date in August or September). Most of the owners don't want to deal with you unless you agree to rent from June or July. I am self-funded and can't afford to start renting too early.

Therefore, I would like to ask fellow third-country EPFL students for advice - on how to find housing and still be able to obtain a residence permit in time. Any tips will be very appreciated.

Upd: the signed contract seems to be not really necessary according to some sources.

Bonjour à tous,

Je prépare l'examen suisse de maturité en candidat libre et je cherche des ressources pour la Physique et Applications des Mathématiques en option spécifique , Biologie OC et Physique DF.

Est-ce que quelqu'un aurait un livre ou des cours en PDF correspondant au programme SEFRI pour cette option ?

Merci d'avance 🙏

Hi everyone,
I applied to the FMEL waiting list on December 28, 2025, which I believe is quite early. My current preferences are:
• Desired lease start: 01.08.2026
• Desired lease end: 15.07.2027
• Flexibility: +/- 2 months
• Studio for 1 person between CHF 601–800/month
• Studio for 1 or 2 people between CHF 801–1,200/month
• Studio for 1 person between CHF 801–1,200/month
• Studio for 1 or 2 people between CHF 601–800/month
• La Bourdonnette: accepted ✓
• Planète Bleue: excluded ✗
About 2–3 weeks ago, I updated my preferences to include La Bourdonnette (I initially set it to “no”, but changed it to “yes”, accepting the construction noise from the nearby Campus Santé building site).
My question is: does modifying your preferences on the FMEL portal reset or affect your position in the waiting list? I checked the FAQ and the preference registration page on their website, but there’s no clear information about this.
Has anyone experienced something similar or know how the system works?
Thanks a lot!

I got an offer from fmel today at 00:00 (Spains hour) for ochettes. Sharing some info that I would like to have had before. This were my preferences:

Lease start date: 01/08 +/- 1 month

(I changed my lease start date some days ago, i had 16/8 but i was afraid i could lose an oportunity jajaja)

I had chosen just flatshares with the lowest prices (0 - 600 and 650 CHF)

And i joined the FMEL waiting list on the 22/12/2025

Hope it helps someone

I was surprised to get an offer so early considering my preferred starting lease date is in August +/- 1 month, and I haven’t even had my final exams yet. I am applying for a Bachelor, but I only knew about Vortex as well as the two optional buildings for which I agreed to receive offers.

I only applied for studios and what they offered is on the more expensive side, around 950CHF.

I wanted to make sure that I have no other choice but to accept, right? If I decline I get immediately flung out of the waiting list from what I understood. The thing is I have a friend currently at EPFL who just finished her bachelor studies and we’ve been looking for shared accommodation along with some other friends. Accepting this means I won’t be available to potentially join them, as I have to pay a large deposit tax for Atrium.

Hey everyone, I’m on the FMEL waitlist and have a few questions — curious if anyone’s been in a similar situation.
I registered on September 7th 2025 with an exact start date of September 1st 2026, for HEC Lausanne. My room preferences are:
• Single room (CHF 0–600)
• Single room (CHF 601–800)
• Flatshare (CHF 0–600)
• Studio for 1 person (CHF 601–800)
A few things I’m wondering:
1. Exact date vs ±1 month — I set an exact start date instead of adding flexibility. I’ve read that people who put ±1 month basically get their offer ~3 months in advance (instead of 2), since FMEL can offer them a place starting 1 month earlier. Does that actually give a better chance of getting a place, or just an earlier offer? Feels a bit unfair that being flexible essentially “games” the system at the cost of one extra month of rent…
2. One offer or multiple? — If you receive an offer and decline it, do you get another one? Or is it one shot and you’re out?
3. Waitlist mechanics — does anyone know how it actually works? Is it purely first come first served? I registered about a year in advance so hoping that helps…
4. Do I even have a chance? — Given my registration date, preferences, and start date, do you think I have a realistic shot at getting an offer? Would love to hear from people who were in a similar situation and whether it worked out!
Thanks in advance 🙏

I have the Swiss nationality and I’m in a French high school in premiere. I have to choose soon if I want to take maths expertes and from what I know it’s not required for the admission. My specialites will be mathematics and physics and chemistry. In epfl I’m thinking about doing a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering or materials and science engineering. Do I have to take maths expertes to prepare for the mathematics in epfl or is it not worth the time and is it just better to prepare myself outside of school.

Thank you in advance.

Hi, I’m going next semester to epfl to study physics one year as an erasmus’s exchange student. I applied to FMEL back in december 2025 .

I have two questions first of all my starting date is 1 of september +/- 1 month but i’m planning on changing it maybe to august if that would get me more chances of getting an offer.

Second of all my preference are:

Single room between CHF 0.- and CHF 600.-
* Flatshare with private Shower/WC, CHF 0.- / CHF 650.-
* Flatshare between CHF 0.- and CHF 600.-
* Studio flat for 1 person between CHF 601.- and CHF 800.-
i don’t know if they are unrealistic and for choosing the cheaper ones i’m not going to get any offer or if for that price the options are really bad.

So any kind of advice or shared experience would be appreciated. And i haven’t looked for other housing platforms should i?

Hey, I wanted to ask if anyone knows how the process usually works. At the start it will be a call for an interview, what would be the next step? And anyone knows if the projects on the doctoral school site are the only projects offered? Or could it be discussable in (post-)interview if things went well for the candidate?

Thank you in advance, have a nice day!

Hi everyone,

I did a bachelor in Mathematics at EPFL from 2010 to 2015, it took me 9 semesters instead of the usual 6 to complete all credits, including retaking my first year when MAN did not exist yet, followed by a master in applied mathematics.

In my experience the first and second year of bachelor where the most miserable years of my existence, where I was constantly overwhelmed by the increasing difficulty of classes, exercises and exams over time, and being constantly behind of schedule. In comparison, third year of bachelor and master were much more manageable, as we could choose our own courses and by that point we would only follow courses we were particularly interested in.
If I had to rate it, I would say first year was difficulty 8/10, second year 9/10 and third year and onward 5/10, on a scale where 1 is an American college experience as portrayed in movies and 10 is full burnout.

Despite this out of scale difficulty at bachelor, I was very puzzled when I learned that there would be no bachelor ceremony, no party, no celebration, or anything at all. We were simply informed to pass by the secretary of the section and get our diploma there. So we students decided to get together, call each other forward, deliver ourselves our diplomas and congratulate each other, in our little makeshift ceremony.

At this point, I feel like EPFL thinks that only the master degree is the real thing, with the big Magistrale day, and bachelor is just a tiny cog in the big machine, something so easy and expected that is not worth of any recognition.
And yet, of all my academic career, I estimate having spent a good 80% of my energies at bachelor, and only 20% at master.

Particularly, at the time we had Analysis 3 and 4 reunited in one single 4 hours, 12 questions exam in summer, worth a whopping 14 credits. I did nothing but study for this exam for 30 days straight and I had to take this exam twice. For many years after graduating I would wake up in panic thinking "I have analysis 3-4 exam today, I must go to EPFL", only to realize I graduated years ago. 10 years after graduating, I can finally say that the nightmares are fading and my PTSD is almost cured. Writing about my experience on r/EPFL helped a lot.

And so, how did it go for other sections? Do you also think bachelor was much harder compared to master, and yet went largely unrecognized by EPFL "leadership"?

I applied for a master at ETH Zurich (ETHZ) and recently got an email saying that my application documents were incomplete, and a deadline to resubmit. When I looked at it, the only issue was that I had not uploaded my CV in German or English. It was in French. This is especially confusing to me since High School diploma, and bachelor diploma, can be uploaded in French or Italian. This led me wondering how it is at EPFL?

Do Ticinesi and Swiss-German need to translate their CV in English or French when applying at EPFL? This seems so pointless since German/French/Italian/Rumantsch are all Swiss national languages, and EPFL is a Swiss federal institute, not cantonal.

Hello, is anyone passing premier partiel/second partiel/examen complet this year in autodidact? I’ve been starting to prepare for the first part (premier partiel) and was wondering if anyone in this somewhat quiet canal was also in preparation.

Sorry for a very off topic post from usual. I met a person named Eva studying architecture at EPFL (bachelor) at the Lausanne main station the night of Balélec and we had a nice short conversation. At the time I probably gave off the energy of not being interested and didn’t ask for any contact details because I wasn’t sure about what she was thinking, but looking back I feel like both of us wanted to talk for longer. I’m believing in the power of the internet and if anyone knows her, it would be amazing to get in touch! The only other fact that may be relevant is that she was with a friend named Mathilda, who is from Geneva.

Just a side note, if she’s already dating someone, then please don’t take this the wrong way, it was a very casual conversation. Also I hope this doesn’t affect their social life in any negative way at Uni (but if someone thinks it might feel free to recommend that I delete the post asap). I wish this becomes a fun story to tell!

I'm a sophomore at an American High School and I speak fluent french. I've started preparing the entrance exam this past month since I didn't really believe I had a chance at the CMS, but I've recently checked the requirements and they're like really low. I currently pass the requirement of +80% in total and +80% in math and physics but I'm assuming getting with just this is not realistic. The hardest math and physics course I have access to is AP Calc AB and AP Physics 1. This is by far not enough for the entrance exam which is why I started working on it but like I'm fine doing 1 year of CMS if it's realistic to get in. In any case I'm still doing the entrance exam like in 2 years but IDK, is CMS a nice cushion or should I not rely on it. I haven't found any info on admission rates and percentage.

Hi everyone. I hope all of you are having a good day. I am an international prospective master's student, waiting for application decisions. In the meantime, I wanted to learn a bit more about campus life. So if any current master's students and alumni can give some insight, I would greatly appreciate it 😄

-It seems that the campus has a strong international population, but I feel nervous not knowing the local language. I am excited to learn French, but is it easy to make connections and be socially engaged with others on campus without any French knowledge?

-I have been working in research since getting my bachelor's, so I am interested in joining lab groups early on. Is it usually possible for an incoming student to be involved in research from the first semester?

- I read a post from a few years ago about average monthly expenses. I am wondering what the current cost of living is for a student. Is it manageable with a part-time job on or off campus? How easy is it to find jobs?

-Lastly, how active are the student organizations? The EPFL website advertises that there is a decent amount, but do they have a strong presence on campus? I am particularly interested in art, board games, and robots.

Thanks!

Bonjour à toutes et à tous,

Je suis étudiante en Belgique en dernière année et je compte commencer un bachelier en math a l'epfl en septembre et j'ai BEAUCOUP de question 😄

• Pour l'admission : C'est assez compliqué avec la limitation qu'ils ont instaurée, est-ce que vous pouvez mettre un peu la moyenne que vous avez eu pour être accepté (moyenne genérale, note en math et note en physique) pour avoir une idée. Si vous êtes belge, c'est encore mieux comme ca je peux me situer ! Je suis dans les environs de 92-95/100 de moyenne générale ... mais est-ce qu'ils tiennent compte des notes du CESS français et histoire (pour les belges)?

Autre question : est-ce qu'ils tiennent compte de l'école (du "prestige" de l'école) ? Pour être honnête je ne suis pas dans une école "renommée" ou quoi donc je me posais la question...

• Si vous avez d'autres conseils a ce niveau la n'hésitez pas ... Ensuite à propos du bachelier, j'ai lu tellement de choses sur la difficulté. Apparemment c'est vraiment horrible 😞 J'aime beaucoup les maths, mais j ça me fait quand même peur... Est-ce que vous avez des conseils pour me préparer au mieux ? Surtout pendant les 2 mois de vacances ?

Quels cours préparer? Faut-il avoir une base en programmation? Autre conseil ? Même des conseils précis par rapport à la méthode de travail etc je suis preneuse ...

• Et finalement par rapport aux logements, je me suis inscrite à la fmel début février, quelles sont mes chances vue la demande importante ? Autre chose, si je reçois une offre en juillet avant la réponde d'admission, que faire dans ce cas ?

Ce sont mes questions principales, mais j'en ai encore bcp (perpectives de carrière après ce bachelier etc...) Bref TOUT m'interesse ... tout ce que je devrais savoir pour bien commencer !

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide !!

Hey everyone — I’ll be in Lausanne this summer for about three months working at EPFL (gonna be my first time in Europe!), and I’m trying to get a feel for what people like to do for fun around here.

I’m especially interested in things like climbing (are there any regular groups or meetups?), water sports on the lake, hiking, or anything outdoorsy—but honestly, I’m up for whatever.

If you’ve got favorite activities, clubs, or even just spontaneous group plans, I’d love to hear about them.

Feel free to drop a comment or send me a DM if you’re up for hanging out or letting me tag along!