Frequently Asked Questions

The answer is no. A conditional transition to the 2nd year is only permitted for students who have presented a justified absence from one or more exams, and only under certain conditions.

If you wish, you may repeat the spring semester courses that you have only taken once. In this case, you will be granted a leave of absence for the following autumn semester and may complete your 1st year  the following spring semester.

The sections will ask the lecturers to recheck your exam scripts. If the results are confirmed (without any correction of marks), the failure will unfortunately be confirmed.

• Yes, if it is a section outside the IC School. In this case, you will need to complete the change of section form, which can be found on the relevant webpage.
• If you want to change from IN to SC (or vice versa), this is only possible if you have successfully passed the propaedeutic cycle.

Yes, all those who are potentially eligible to pass their 1st year at the end of the autumn semester will be informed of this possibility and will receive the list of courses that they can take in BA4.

Yes, you can decide not to repeat the course, but this means that if the block is not passed on the second attempt, the course can no longer be repeated and the block will be declared definitively failed.

Indeed, you are concerned, as you will have the new credits for the course. Unfortunately, however, the two additional credits will not be included in your “Options” group. Nevertheless, the additional credits will be included in the calculation of both your mandatory block average and your overall Bachelor’s degree average.

The sections will ask the lecturers to recheck your exam scripts. If the results are confirmed (without any correction of marks), the failure will unfortunately be confirmed.

As this is a cross-disciplinary group (made up of 2nd and 3rd year courses), the answer is no. However, if you are planning to undertake an exchange in your 3rd year, it is strongly recommended that you validate the Bio/Physics sub-group during your 2nd year, as there is no guarantee that courses other than in computer science will be offered at the host universities.

No. However, it is mandatory that the SHS block, Block A and Block B and 14 credits of optional courses are validated. This will ensure that you have the 60 credits required for your 2nd year, enabling you to undertake an exchange.

IS-Academia only shows you the semester of the study plan for the current academic year, whereas you must follow the study plan when you started your Bachelor cycle (in BA3).

The important thing is to register for the right course, regardless of the block or group in which it is listed.

If you cannot find the course in your list (e.g. because you are in BA5 and wish to do a BA3 option), you must go to ‘’ Other subjects : ‘’. Clicking on the arrow opens a window in which you can enter either the course title or the course code and select the right one.

It is not possible to cancel a course enrolment, but you can withdraw from the exam up to the 10th week. This is done from the Exams tab in the IS-Academia portal.

In this case, any tests you have done by then will not be taken into account and no mark will be awarded for the course.

Not necessarily. If the subject is only assessed by a final exam, you will receive an “NA”. On the other hand, if the subject consists of one or more continuous assessments that are graded throughout the semester and you have taken them, you will receive a “0” for the final exam. If the final grade is below “1”, you will receive an “NA”. Otherwise, you will receive a grade that reflects the weighting of the various assessment components in the subject.

Yes, all courses taken, whether passed or failed, will count towards your overall Bachelor’s average.

No. Even if the credits do not count toward your Bachelor’s degree, a failed course cannot be removed from your transcript.

Yes, but the course will not count towards your Bachelor’s degree and will be listed under “off-plan subjects” and will not appear on your official transcript.

EPFL does not award credits for language courses. The three credits in question are only applicable to students at the University of Lausanne (UNIL).

Please note that consultation of the exam script is only for the purpose of identifying your mistakes and is in no way intended to negotiate the grade. If you think there is an error in the marking, you should inform the lecturer who will check. If the error is confirmed, the lecturer will complete a grade change form. If the lecturer considers that there is no error, but you disagree with the decision, you can submit a reassessment request (DNA). The procedure is available on the webpage: Reassessment request and appeal – EPFL.

Yes, the change of section between IN and SC at the end of the propaedeutic year is not counted in the number of section changes, as no section change form was required. However, the change must be made within the first 15 days of your BA5 semester at the latest. After that, it is too late.

The deadline is the same as for any other course: within the following year. Since the research project can be carried out either in the autumn or spring semester, you may complete it in either of these two semesters following the failure. However, be careful and take note that the maximum study period for completing your Bachelor’s cycle is eight semesters. You should take the time to check with the section to see how many semesters you have left.

Yes. In IC, the same withdrawal deadline applies to the research project as for other courses, i.e. no later than the 10th week of the semester. However, you must inform the person supervising you that you wish to withdraw from the project.

As an internship at Bachelor level is not a mandatory requirement for your Bachelor studies, the section is not authorized to provide you with an internship agreement (see Special cases – Study management – EPFL). However, if necessary, the section can give you a letter of support.

No, this is not possible. As stated in our study regulations, you need to have completed your Bachelor’s degree to be able to start the Master’s program with an internship.

It is not possible to calculate a provisional average for a block. Consequently, if a six-credit course is missing, in addition to a failed six-credit course, it is not possible to gain conditional transition to the Master’s program.

No. Conditional transition to the Master’s program is only possible if you are missing 10 credits from the 3rd year and no exemption is granted, not even for one credit.

Not necessarily. To complete your Bachelor’s degree, you must have passed each block (with a 4.0 grade point average) and each group (individual credits) that make up the Bachelor’s study plan. Therefore, if you have taken more options, it is possible that you have already accumulated more than 120 credits but have not yet passed the remaining blocks and groups that make up your study plan.

The Registrar’s Office can provide you with attestations and certified copies. You can apply online (see Attestations and certified copies).

To have your documents in English, simply change the “user language” in IS-Academia via the Options menu (top left). By setting it to “en”, your documents will be in that language. Make sure you have saved this modification.

If you remain in one of the IC Master programs (CYB, DS, IN), the answer is yes. It is also possible to conditionally transition to the Master’s program in the spring semester (up to a maximum of 10 missing or failed 3rd year credits). For SC, this possibility also exists for the Master in Neuro-X. On the other hand, entry to the Master’s program in another program, such as MTE, is only possible in autumn, provided that you have completed your Bachelor’s degree.

No, as it is a consecutive Master’s degree to the Bachelor’s degrees IN and SC. Once you receive the FRAC validation email from Student Services, all you need to do is select your Master’s degree from the drop-down menu. If you are starting the Master’s program in the spring, you will need to contact Student Services and indicate the Master’s program of your choice. This is necessary because IS-Academia will automatically place you in the Master’s program that corresponds to your Bachelor’s degree.