As some may know, I have recently begun school at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. EPFL is a world-renowned engineering university, and interestingly enough, they also have a passion for business. Upon my arrival into this new education system, they have made intellectual property and riding through with your ideas a high priority. At least when I was an undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz, I was not exposed to this entrepreneurship mindset. Few people were beginning start-ups, and I think the innovation side of things was never really integrated into my college education. With that said, coming to EPFL has been mind-opening. They are passionate about their students and alums to be the world’s next big business.
Before school even started, we had a welcome day. On this welcome day, the president of EPFL spoke to us at their massive Swiss Tech Convention Center, where they talked about a variety of events that they hold to get into business. These events included company recruitments, entrepreneurial contests, and TED talks. However, from day 0, the president set the bar high for anyone that stepped foot on our campus by bringing in one of his most famous alums, Daniel Borel, the founder of Logitech. Mr. Borel talked about his experiences at this school and how practical his time here was for the success of his now-massive company. One of the most exciting aspects of his speech was how the school itself empowered him to take that initial risk. Therefore this multimillionaire co-founder delivered a similar message in which he told us to take risks and build on innovative ideas. He said that if you believed in your product, you could tell others to do the same. Though I never intended to be a company’s CEO due to my lack of business knowledge, I took his advice. I will explore it during my time here. So while I never intended to learn business, entrepreneurship, or what it takes to begin a start-up, I am lucky that just being present here will teach me a thing or two about this significant subject.
This theme, believe it or not, also stems in the classrooms. Since I am a student in the school of life sciences, this has been especially apparent. Biotech and pharma have become extremely massive industries, and it is only projected to get larger with the recent influx of biological data. Therefore cutting-edge technologies like CRISPR, NGS, etc., have opened doors to explore some of the world’s most ambitious problems in drug discovery, biomedical sciences, and genetics. So even in my biology courses, this business mindset has been apparent, and it is not far off until I start a company…. just kidding….
In addition to the business aspect, experiencing a brand-new education system has also been eye-opening. Switzerland has a shocking 51% passing rate amongst 1st-year bachelor’s students due to their education system. I want to therefore explain their system and why nearly half of the school never obtain a bachelor’s degree:
Unlike in the US, you can go to any university if you have a high school diploma. However, to regulate the university’s population density, they need an efficient form of filtering out students. The top two famous Swiss universities, EPFL and ETH, have the highest fail rate amongst their students, thanks to their filtering system. Because both these schools are strictly engineering, all 1st-year bachelor students typically take the same courses in mathematics and physics that they will need in their engineering disciplines. Whether you are a computer scientist, electrical/mechanical/bio/civil engineer, or an architect, you will need some foundational knowledge of mathematics and physics. Therefore they teach you everything from Calculus to Fourier transforms, all within a year. To contrast this to my education, I was never introduced to the Fourier series/changes until my final year at university. For this reason, it is safe to say that this education system is brutal for the new 18-year-olds that enter EPFL/ETH.
Unsurprisingly, many students fail because the workload is far more than a full-time job in the USA. The unit (ECT) system here is borderline insanity for any student attending this school. The scale is typically for every ECT you take, you are required to do double the amount of hours. They also advise students to take roughly 30 ECTs a semester to stay on track to graduate on time. To contextualize this educational insanity, I am currently taking 32 ECTs. The expectation is that I will work double the amount of ECTs in hours per week. This means I have to work around 64 hours weekly to keep up with the curriculum. So all students who attend school at EPFL or ETH have to go through many years of an intense workload. To put my thoughts on this education system, I am unsure if it is healthy. Speaking with the Swiss locals, they say there is no time to do other activities and that they need to mentally prepare themselves to receive a bachelor’s degree. On top of that, a bachelor is deemed worthless in the European workforce. Most careers require a minimum of a master’s degree for any work. Students at EPFL/ETH therefore typically take these massive schedules for five years…
This education system is far more intense than the one I just came from in the USA. There also appears to be this propaganda in Europe that America is superior and ahead by many years. Swiss locals have expressed how their professors have been telling them for years that without this lifestyle, they would not survive in America. They are always shocked to hear when I tell them this is not true at all. During my undergraduate degree, I took four classes on average and could do other extracurriculars during this time. Therefore talking to these people has been interesting. Since I am just starting school, I have not felt this pressure yet, but I am preparing myself for the worst throughout the semester. I have school for 14 straight weeks and do not get a single holiday break until we get off of school on Christmas Eve! So while it’s been a unique experience, I am trying to mentally prepare myself for this intensive workload that is to come. Wish me the best…
Thanks for reading!