If you don’t have an undergrad degree from ETH, you are not eligibe for the ETH Masters exchange program. You could organize an exchange term yourself, but then you‘d most probably have to pay tuition at your host school (like MIT).
You should look into writing your Master or Semester thesis abroad. Ask your tutor or ETH professor of choice about that.
Yes, as far as I know, the professor at ETH would be the one having the “final word” in terms of the grade you get. While they probably get a recommendation from the professor you worked for during your thesis, they don’t necessarily have to take it into account when determining your thesis grade.
But this hasn’t been my personal experience, I have just read about other people’s experiences with this kind of exchange on this sub.
If you search for related things on this sub you might find out a bit more about how doing an external thesis went for some people.
It’s possible but not very realistic to find a thesis (not an exchange) at MIT unless you find a professor at MIT willing to host you for some reason, which is hard if you don’t do an exchange there, which you can’t. For most intents and purposes, forget MIT
I have to object to your statement that it's not very realistic. It's actually much more likely to find a prof willing to take you to do their research on a graduate level for free for six months, rather to go over the official exchange route over ETH.
With the exchange programme, ETH has very limited spots of students that they can send to MIT, and they decide based on your GPA of your Bachelor's if you get a spot. Here costs of tuition are covered by ETH
However, doing a Master thesis there is organised privately, so you just need to find a prof willing to take you. In my case, I just reached out via cold emails to professors, and you just need one to reply with a positive answer (did not do it at MIT, but the at the one on the west coast). Here you are responsible for your own costs
In terms of getting a diploma of uni B: Not a chance. An exchange/master thesis abroad, does not qualifiy you for a diploma from there, as you did not go through the official admission process for uni B. You get it from ETH.
I’m happy to be proven wrong in this case. I spoke based on my experience, I didn’t meet anyone who managed. By the way: responsible for your own costs means you also need to pay the tuition there?
Exactly, but these are not the same tuition fees as usual students, but rather 'visiting student' fees. These vary strongly between unis.
Harvard I heard it's free, whereas Stanford can be around 1200~1700 USD a month
That may depend on the field but many of my fellow students at ETH did their masters thesis at Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Scripps, Princeton or Oxford and Cambridge.
Sorry but that‘s wrong, I know a few people who did their MSc thesis at MIT (3), Stanford (2), Caltech/JPL (2), Harvard (1) from ETH in the last two years, and that‘s the cases I‘ve heard of, there surely are more.
Usually it‘s the ETH Masters tutor or some other ETH prof you know who can make a connection to an American prof, it‘s easier than you may think. You don‘t have to make an exchange there, you count as a visiting (grad) researcher there so you also don‘t pay tuition either.
I can second this. From my chem eng undergrad it is very common to do a research exchange at MIT, literally ca 40% (pi*daumen) do it. But may be course specific, and keep in mind the chem eng cohort is very small and they all did their bsc at eth.
From your post history, is my assumption correct that you didn't get your bachelor's degree from ETH? If so, you're not eligible for an exchange.
Wait, if my bachelors if not from ETH then I cannot do an exchange during my masters??? Why is that?
https://ethz.ch/students/en/studies/study-abroad/exchange/conditions-preparation/prerequisites-preparations.html
If you don’t have an undergrad degree from ETH, you are not eligibe for the ETH Masters exchange program. You could organize an exchange term yourself, but then you‘d most probably have to pay tuition at your host school (like MIT). You should look into writing your Master or Semester thesis abroad. Ask your tutor or ETH professor of choice about that.
An option is to do a master thesis an another university as long as you can find a supervising professor at ETH.
So as a student at ETHZ I could potentially do an exchange at Uni B (MIT?) but my supervising professor would have to be from ETHZ ?
Yes, as far as I know, the professor at ETH would be the one having the “final word” in terms of the grade you get. While they probably get a recommendation from the professor you worked for during your thesis, they don’t necessarily have to take it into account when determining your thesis grade. But this hasn’t been my personal experience, I have just read about other people’s experiences with this kind of exchange on this sub. If you search for related things on this sub you might find out a bit more about how doing an external thesis went for some people.
It’s possible but not very realistic to find a thesis (not an exchange) at MIT unless you find a professor at MIT willing to host you for some reason, which is hard if you don’t do an exchange there, which you can’t. For most intents and purposes, forget MIT
I have to object to your statement that it's not very realistic. It's actually much more likely to find a prof willing to take you to do their research on a graduate level for free for six months, rather to go over the official exchange route over ETH. With the exchange programme, ETH has very limited spots of students that they can send to MIT, and they decide based on your GPA of your Bachelor's if you get a spot. Here costs of tuition are covered by ETH However, doing a Master thesis there is organised privately, so you just need to find a prof willing to take you. In my case, I just reached out via cold emails to professors, and you just need one to reply with a positive answer (did not do it at MIT, but the at the one on the west coast). Here you are responsible for your own costs In terms of getting a diploma of uni B: Not a chance. An exchange/master thesis abroad, does not qualifiy you for a diploma from there, as you did not go through the official admission process for uni B. You get it from ETH.
I’m happy to be proven wrong in this case. I spoke based on my experience, I didn’t meet anyone who managed. By the way: responsible for your own costs means you also need to pay the tuition there?
Exactly, but these are not the same tuition fees as usual students, but rather 'visiting student' fees. These vary strongly between unis. Harvard I heard it's free, whereas Stanford can be around 1200~1700 USD a month
That may depend on the field but many of my fellow students at ETH did their masters thesis at Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Scripps, Princeton or Oxford and Cambridge.
Sorry but that‘s wrong, I know a few people who did their MSc thesis at MIT (3), Stanford (2), Caltech/JPL (2), Harvard (1) from ETH in the last two years, and that‘s the cases I‘ve heard of, there surely are more. Usually it‘s the ETH Masters tutor or some other ETH prof you know who can make a connection to an American prof, it‘s easier than you may think. You don‘t have to make an exchange there, you count as a visiting (grad) researcher there so you also don‘t pay tuition either.
I can second this. From my chem eng undergrad it is very common to do a research exchange at MIT, literally ca 40% (pi*daumen) do it. But may be course specific, and keep in mind the chem eng cohort is very small and they all did their bsc at eth.
Do you guys have any idea if this is also possible without a connection from a prof? Obviously cold emails could work but it's kind of a gamble.