The Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP) supports students with a scholarship, mentorship and a network of the ETH Foundation. The scholarship covers the full study and living costs during the Master’s degree course.
Benefits
- The Excellence Scholarship/ESOP consists of a scholarship covering living and study expenses (CHF 12’000 per semester, from HS27 onwards 13’500 CHF) as well as a tuition fee waiver.
- ESOP is awarded for the regular duration of the Master’s programme (three or four semesters). This also applies for the tuition fee waiver.
- Only ETH Bachelor students may start the ESOP with a leave of absence.
Requirements
- Very good result in Bachelor’s degree programme (top 10% of Bachelor’s degree programme = grade A; this is based on self-assessment).
- Please make sure to be reachable under the telephone number specified in your CV as the selection process might include a phone/VC interview in February. If your are not available during that time, please inform the study programme coordinator.
If you are already enrolled in a Master’s degree programme at ETH Zurich, or hold a Master degree, you are not eligible for ESOP.
Selection Process
- For the start in the academic year 2027/28 there will be assigned approximately 60 ESOP scholarships.
- The decision is communicated at the end of March.
- The applications are evaluated by the Admissions Committees of the respective Master’s programmes.
- The final decision for awarding scholarships in the Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme rests with the Rector of ETH Zurich.
- The exact number of annual scholarships depends on the availability of funds.
- The decisions are communicated by end of March.
Application Documents
- In addition to the documents for the Master admission you will need to upload a pre-proposal for your master thesis (Downloadguidelines_preproposal (PDF, 86 KB)).
- The pre-proposal for the Master’s thesis must be developed by yourself and use established scientific citation practice.
- Plagiarism, negligent or intentional misinformation will lead to exclusion from the admission process or – if discovered later – to the revocation of the admission and of any scholarship.
- If your study programme does not ask for references you must name two reference persons (professors) for your ESOP application. These persons should upload (after an email from the system) a reference letter within two weeks (see Downloadguidelines_reference_letter (PDF, 73 KB)).
Method of Application
Contact: Dr. Barbara E. Hellermann
Financial Aid Office
For More Information,
Application Deadline: November 30, 2026