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Only if you satisfy a long list of conditions. The reason this is the case is that Switzerland sorts kids very early, at 12 years essentially. Get sorted wrongl

Only if you satisfy a long list of conditions. The reason this is the case is that Switzerland sorts kids very early, at 12 years essentially. Get sorted wrongly once and while you do get a second chance, they make sure it takes you 2 years absolute minimum, 4-6 years normally and even more is possible to enter university. Oh, and if you get sorted wrong (lang or kurzgymnasium), it takes years and expensive courses to get back. The low tuition only applies if you enter before you turn 25 years old. And Zurich is very expensive to rent a room. Even once in university, you only get one chance (you should see the crying on results day), if you want to redo a year, you can do it in Germany (closest) or France/Italy that do allow it. Which of course is anything but cheap, as a non-local you do not qualify for any kind of aid. But sure, what you say is correct, tuition is not that high and if you really try, yes you can get through it as a very poor person. But one mistake and it'll take you a very long time to claw back, and a lot of money. (this is about ETH Zurich, EPFL is similar, but not quite as bad)

currymj 3y ago
what is the tuition if you are over 25? I think it is still about 800 CHF. This is extremely cheap. Compare to MIT which is about $40,000 a semester, with the average student after financial aid paying $20,000, and is in Cambridge, a city where rents are about as bad as Zurich (although most students live in MIT dorms). if MIT failed out 50% of their class with $40-80k in debt, this could not be tolerated.
- candiodari 3y ago
  It's not the tuition that's expensive (well, if you're not Swiss it's 1000/month instead of 1200/year, but that's still way cheaper than US. Germany's still cheaper though), it's the courses you have to take before you can even enter Uni ("passerelle", 6 month mandatory course, you cannot start before you've completed at least a Berufsmaturitat, costs for the course according to kme.ch: 2* 17000 to 20000 CHF (meaning ~40000 CHF), not including study materials or the actual exam cost, oh and to add insult to injury you get to pay extra for a mandatory psychological interview to see if you're motivated). This does not consider that you'll need to actually attend this course, either in the evenings (min. 10hrs per week, for 2 years), during which you'll have living + ... expenses. Attendance is mandatory, and frankly it's the only part that I can imagine you'll fail. Because passerelle is waste of time (look up the course ...) you're much better off getting a degree in Munich or Stuttgart, any will do (any bachelor degree also gets you admission to any Swiss university, regardless of language, but of course that doesn't help to get you your first degree). You can for example get a philosophy bachelor (which you can get for 800euro + attending the exam once, and while I'm sure it's possible to fail this course, you'll have to fail it a lot before you run up the 40000CHF bill it costs in Zurich to get admission to university, plus it's so easy I suspect a dead cat might pass. Can be fully studied in an afternoon). But passerelle is what you're supposed to do in Switzerland, as a Swiss. A lot of people do it this way. (note: a non-German bachelor will only get you admission if you also present a Goethe C1 or C2, or a some school finishing certificate from a German school) That gets you ONE chance. If you fail any year in Zurich at any university, you can't continue studying at all. This is ignoring the demands of the university itself, the one you want to get into (ETH Zurich), has extra conditions which they publish one year in advance. And even that isn't the end of it. If you're studying a "desirable" degree, like medical doctor for example, there's many more traps to fall into. At that point you might want to consider just studying entirely in Germany, without even trying in Switzerland, even if by some miracle you actually satisfy the conditions. Lastly, the government is looking to limit enrollment further. So I, for one, expect these requirements to become more onerous over time, not less. The goal of these regulations is not what the regulations actually regulate (there's funny idiotic parts to the rules. For example: German Swiss degrees count as proving your German language skills ... even when the classes are in English, like most scientific bachelors are). Also, for example Passerelle is effectively a local jobs program, at the expense of university students. You will not learn anything in the course. But yeah, tuition is pretty cheap, even the auslander rate. Great.

currymj 3y ago

what is the tuition if you are over 25? I think it is still about 800 CHF. This is extremely cheap. Compare to MIT which is about $40,000 a semester, with the average student after financial aid paying $20,000, and is in Cambridge, a city where rents are about as bad as Zurich (although most students live in MIT dorms). if MIT failed out 50% of their class with $40-80k in debt, this could not be tolerated.

candiodari 3y ago
It's not the tuition that's expensive (well, if you're not Swiss it's 1000/month instead of 1200/year, but that's still way cheaper than US. Germany's still cheaper though), it's the courses you have to take before you can even enter Uni ("passerelle", 6 month mandatory course, you cannot start before you've completed at least a Berufsmaturitat, costs for the course according to kme.ch: 2* 17000 to 20000 CHF (meaning ~40000 CHF), not including study materials or the actual exam cost, oh and to add insult to injury you get to pay extra for a mandatory psychological interview to see if you're motivated). This does not consider that you'll need to actually attend this course, either in the evenings (min. 10hrs per week, for 2 years), during which you'll have living + ... expenses. Attendance is mandatory, and frankly it's the only part that I can imagine you'll fail. Because passerelle is waste of time (look up the course ...) you're much better off getting a degree in Munich or Stuttgart, any will do (any bachelor degree also gets you admission to any Swiss university, regardless of language, but of course that doesn't help to get you your first degree). You can for example get a philosophy bachelor (which you can get for 800euro + attending the exam once, and while I'm sure it's possible to fail this course, you'll have to fail it a lot before you run up the 40000CHF bill it costs in Zurich to get admission to university, plus it's so easy I suspect a dead cat might pass. Can be fully studied in an afternoon). But passerelle is what you're supposed to do in Switzerland, as a Swiss. A lot of people do it this way. (note: a non-German bachelor will only get you admission if you also present a Goethe C1 or C2, or a some school finishing certificate from a German school) That gets you ONE chance. If you fail any year in Zurich at any university, you can't continue studying at all. This is ignoring the demands of the university itself, the one you want to get into (ETH Zurich), has extra conditions which they publish one year in advance. And even that isn't the end of it. If you're studying a "desirable" degree, like medical doctor for example, there's many more traps to fall into. At that point you might want to consider just studying entirely in Germany, without even trying in Switzerland, even if by some miracle you actually satisfy the conditions. Lastly, the government is looking to limit enrollment further. So I, for one, expect these requirements to become more onerous over time, not less. The goal of these regulations is not what the regulations actually regulate (there's funny idiotic parts to the rules. For example: German Swiss degrees count as proving your German language skills ... even when the classes are in English, like most scientific bachelors are). Also, for example Passerelle is effectively a local jobs program, at the expense of university students. You will not learn anything in the course. But yeah, tuition is pretty cheap, even the auslander rate. Great.