EPFL Exchange Part 0: Pre-Exchange
This is the first part of my EPFL Switzerland exchange blog series! I keep a diary/journal, but the quality of my entries is far below what I’d like to publish. That’s why it’s going to take me forever to write up my exchange blogs, but here’s a start. Santé! 🥂
Why Go on Exchange?
I had a great time on my Central Europe voyage last year, and I wanted to return to see more of the continent. I also wanted to experience living abroad for a few months since I wouldn’t have this opportunity once I start working full-time.
I struggled to make friends in 1A and 1B. Classes were hybrid in 1A, and 1B was our first in-person term (if you ignore the fact that school was closed for the first month due to high COVID cases). People had grown used to isolation over the previous two years, especially my classmates in the enriched math and CS courses. I was disappointed by the lack of extracurricular life at Waterloo. Sure, the courses are good, but university is supposed to be the best time of your life—and I wasn’t getting that here.
I stayed at a classmate’s place in Vancouver before heading to San Francisco. I was lucky to have three sunny days to appreciate the city. We reached a bench on the UBC campus, flanked by cherry blossoms, overlooking the sea, with mountains across the horizon. We had just suffered through two terms of enriched courses during a particularly cold winter. Taking in the view, she lamented that she would have loved to stay here for university. No—she had to choose Waterloo for the co-op program. But I… at this point, I seriously considered transferring here—until my summer internship changed my perspective.
Imagine living on a campus like this (UBC)
This was the first time since COVID that Waterloo students were doing in-person internships, and our Waterloo Bay Area group chat was buzzing. Everyone was there for the first time, and everyone was a stranger. We explored the city, hiked mountains, played board games, and altogether had a good time. I ran into a new grad who said his best term was on exchange at ETH Zürich! This piqued my interest: living in the mountains, speaking German, travelling on weekends, and hitting the bar with classmates after school.
I eventually figured out how to enjoy my school terms at Waterloo—but still 🙃. I’ve moved to San Francisco, San Mateo, and Chicago for internships. Now it was time to step things up and move to a truly foreign country.
Choosing a School
I love nature and history, and I dislike big cities—so Europe over Asia.
My exchange university criteria were, in rough order of importance:
- Offered by the University of Waterloo
- Good weather and nature
- A good number of foreign (English-speaking) students to connect with
- A local language I could converse in, i.e., English or French
- Reasonably good course offerings (I still care about learning)
- A central location for easy continental travel
England was the first place I looked as they speak English and the country feels more “American” than the rest of Europe. They also have very good schools, but the weather was too gloomy and the country didn’t interest me. There weren’t many schools offered in France, and none were particularly strong academically or near mountains. The Nordic countries, the Low Countries, Germany, and Switzerland have good English proficiency, so those were my next considerations.
The Low Countries, Denmark, and northern Germany lack mountains, so I ruled them out. The only remaining option in Germany was the Technical University of Munich, about a two-hour drive from the Bavarian Alps. I happened to meet a TUM exchange student at Waterloo in 2022 and visited him in Munich last year. The campus and quality of professors were lacking, so I passed.
I also didn’t want to be somewhere too cold (by Southern Ontario standards) in winter, so I ruled out the Nordic countries.
Switzerland has stunning mountains, mild winters, a somewhat international vibe, and two technical universities. I started learning German last year and would have loved to study at the world-renowned ETH Zürich, but I was still a beginner, and Swiss German differs significantly from Standard High German. Given that I wanted to spend my time hiking and travelling, intensive language learning wasn’t practical. In the end, my opinion didn’t matter—ETH Zürich explicitly disallowed CS students from Waterloo. That left me with EPFL, the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne—still a good school—situated in French-speaking Lausanne. The Swiss French speak slower and more standard French (less slang and non-standard grammar) than Parisian—perfect for my schoolboy-French!
Pre-arrival
Housing
FMEL is the housing association affiliated with EPFL and UNIL universities in Lausanne. Most exchange students from outside Europe were guaranteed FMEL housing. This was a huge advantage, as I secured a studio right across the street from campus. My European friends struggled to find housing and ended up commuting 45 minutes by train for the same rent as me. Initially, I hadn’t planned on getting a studio, but the small premium for a private kitchen was well worth it, as I would be cooking a lot this term.
Visa
The visa application process was more frustrating. I was in Chicago over the summer but had to mail my application package to the Montreal consulate. USPS was out of the question after they lost my tax forms the previous year, and the FedEx and UPS websites were unusable. I spent a week with customer support just to figure out how to buy a shipping label. The issue was declaring a shipment value too high, which triggered vague error messages. The whole time, I prayed FedEx wouldn’t lose my passport 🙏.
Arrival
I landed in Zürich and slept on the train to Lausanne. After moving into my dorm, I went straight to bed. The next day, I visited the population office to apply for a resident’s permit. I was annoyed by the 142 CHF (225 CAD) fee, but it was only the first of many…
I was surprised by how spacious my dorm was. I was used to dorms barely fitting a bed, desk, and drawer. Here, even shared flat bedrooms were huge. My studio included a kitchenette, dining table, and a beautiful eastward view of the light rail garage and mountains beyond. Initially, there were some pests (flies, spiders, silverfish), but after a few rounds with the vacuum and colder temperatures, they disappeared.
My studio
Kitchenette
Morning photos out my window1
Washroom2
While moving in, I met an Irish guy whose English accent I struggled to understand. We pronounced our vowels very differently, and I had to ask him to repeat himself again and again. We ended up speaking a mix of English and French 🤣.
In Canada, French classes emphasized reading, writing, oral comprehension, pronunciation, and answering the teacher’s questions—not conversational fluency. My first real French conversation was at my past internship company’s “French Lunch,” where a group (none of whom were from a French-speaking country) would chat in French. Unsurprisingly, I had forgotten verb conjugations and struggled to form sentences despite knowing vocabulary and grammar rules. I lacked fluency.
Bergen Trip
I had a week before school started, so I scheduled a trip to Bergen! (to be published).
In the next part, I’ll cover the start of the semester. Stay tuned 📻!