Students who were accepted directly to the Bachelor’s cycle, without having completed the first year at EPFL, are in principle not allowed to transfer to another program during the Bachelor’s program.
Program transfer at the beginning of the Bachelor’s cycle
Students who have successfully completed the first year in a program in the STI School or the IC School and who wish to transfer to another program in the same school can do so freely until the end of the second week of the Bachelor’s cycle. They only need to request the transfer within the Academic Reregistration Form or through the Student Services Desk.
For all other program transfers at the beginning of the Bachelor’s cycle, students must obtain the authorisation of the program to which they wish to transfer. Students who are interested in such a transfer must fill in the form Changement de Section (in French) and submit it, together with a motivation letter, to the secretary’s office of the desired program, before the end of the second week of the Bachelor’s cycle.
Should the program transfer be accepted, it can entail admission conditions (first-year-level courses to be completed before or during the Bachelor’s cycle).
Program transfer during the Bachelor’s cycle
During the Bachelor’s cycle, students are allowed to transfer to another program at the beginning of a semester, provided that they have the authorisation of the program to which they wish to transfer and that they fullfill one of the following two conditions:
- they have successfully completed the previous semester(s) in their current program or
- they haven’t yet transferred to another program during their studies at EPFL (or started but not completed another Bachelor-level program before their studies at EPFL).
Requests may therefore only be processed by the Registrar’s Office once the grades for the previous semester have been published.
Students who are interested in such a transfer must fill in the form Changement de Section (in French) and submit it, together with a motivation letter, to the secretary’s office of the desired program, before the end of the second week of the semester for which they wish to transfer to another program.
Should the program transfer be accepted, the program will decided at which level the student is accepted and whether there will be any admission conditions (courses of an inferior level to be completed before or during the Bachelor’s cycle in the new program).
In the case of an admission to the beginning of the Bachelor’s cycle, students may be exempted from certain subjects in their new program. For more information regarding the conditions to be taken into account for such an exemption, please consult the page Exemption / Arrangement.
In the case of an admission to an inferior semester of the Bachelor’s cycle in the new program, the maximum duration to successfully complete the cycle (eight semesters) is not prolonged. Semesters completed within the Bachelor’s cycle in the earlier program are therefore still taken into account.
Program transfer between the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs
To transfer to a non-consecutive program between the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs, students must apply (during their final year in the Bachelor’s program) for admission to the Master’s program in which they wish to be registered. The procedure and deadline for such an application can be found on the EPFL Master’s promotional website. If the desired Master’s program is consecutive to the student’s Bachelor’s program, it can simply be selected in the FRAC form at the beginning of the first semester of the Master’s.