Exchange students in MechEng: tips and tricks

This document is maintained by your Exchange Study Advisor, Prof. Giancarlo Ferrari Trecate

  • Questions about regulations and procedures (for instance, submission deadlines,  language requirements, the possibility of taking master-level courses in the host university, etc.)

 

  • Validation of the Learning Agreement (LA)
    • OUTGOING students
      • When you submit your first LA or update it later, always send me the following documents:
        • The pdf of the official EPFL LA form
        • A table describing how the courses you have chosen map into the mandatory SGM courses (the list is here) and containing a brief description of each chosen course (copy and paste from the web or links to webpages). Examples of a table associated with a first LA and a table associated with an updated LA, with the changes highlighted.
          Without both documents, your request won’t be processed.
    • INCOMING students. Send me the pdf of the LA (in the format of your home university). Please check that the LA does not contain courses restricted to EPFL students – the complete list is here.

 

  • Validation of the exchange year – OUTGOING  students only
    • Send me the complete transcript. To validate your Bachelor’s, you must obtain at least 180 ECTS after the exchange year. Otherwise:
      • If you score at least 170 ECTS, you can catch up with the missing credits during the first year of the master’s at EPFL
      • If you score less than 170 ECTS, you will have to repeat the third year at EPFL
      • In both cases, the study plan at EPFL must be approved by me before validating your exchange year
    • Once I receive the transcript, I validate the credits, and the SGM secretary submits the validation request to SAC. If you want to know the status of your Bachelor’s validation, please get in touch with SAC directly, not me. Due to the high volume of emails from exchange students, I will not reply to inquiries of this kind.