ibex

Hi everybody, I am usually just a lurker when it comes to such forums but since I think I can answer some of your questions I decided to create an account and give it a go ?. I am an ETH BSc student who applied for ESOP and had an interview a few weeks ago. During the interview the decision process was explained to me and I also talked to people who have received ESOP in previous years so I might be able to provide some insight. ESOP decisions will come out by the end of March. The exact date is uncertain but try to relax for now, you will definitely have to wait for another few weeks. This also means that it is very likely that you will receive your admission decision earlier than your ESOP decision. The general process for ESOP decisions is as follows: All the applications are evaluated by the respective departments and promising candidates are invited for interviews (usually late January/February) by the departments. The interviews are conducted by one or more professors/lecturers/mentors of that department. After the interviews, the department decides to propose their top candidates to the ETH-wide decision committee. How many candidates are proposed depends on the size of the department, specifically the number of Master students that belong to that department. Larger departments get more „slots“ for ESOP than smaller ones and the number of slots each department gets is more or less fixed from the beginning. So people applying to different departments are not really competing against each other for a scholarship. This ETH-wide decision committee then meets in March and makes the final decisions. ESOP acceptance decisions are then sent out all at once. This year there will be around 60 ESOP scholarships for the whole of ETH. Sometimes students are accepted for ESOP without an interview. However, from what I have heard, this usually only happens to internal students, so students who did their BSc degree at ETH. I am also an internal student but was interviewed too. How detrimental the different components of your application (e.g. grades, proposal, interview, reference letters, research experience,…) are to the success of your application really depends on the priorities of the respective department. That’s at least the impression I got. So all in all, try not to stress out too much, unfortunately we will have to wait for a few more weeks. Also, try not to compare yourself to other applicants, especially if you are applying to different departments. And lastly, if you are admitted but do not get ESOP, there are other possibilities to (partially) finance your studies at ETH, e.g. by becoming a teaching assistant. I am sorry that my post got so long but I hope I managed to clarify some of your questions and have been able to relieve some of your stress/anxiety :). Best of luck to everyone!