Diego Ballesteros, Master's student
Colombia
If you had a full scholarship for any university worldwide, would you still choose ETH Zurich to study computer science? Which reasons speak for or against ETH?
Certainly I would. When I made the decision to come to ETH for my studies, my focus lay on the academic reputation and the quality of research produced by the Department of Computer Science. The past two years at ETH confirmed my choice. Moreover, I would love to spend some more time at ETH because Switzerland - and Zürich in particular - is a great place to live, study and work. The quality of life is exceptionally high. Usually, this would come at a price, but thanks to my Excellence Scholarship, I was able to enjoy a comfortable student life. Additionally, for computer science graduate students, there is a large number of career opportunities: be it in a large company - national or international - or in a start-up. During the past two years, I learned about the importance of balancing work and leisure activities. Fortunately, in Switzerland, one can find all kinds of recreation opportunities. In spite of giving the last question a lot of thought, I personally can't really think of any reason why not to choose ETH.
What highlights your student life up to now? What do you like most about it? What has been particularly memorable?
Where to start? What I clearly like the most is the personal and professional relationships I have been able to establish here. I have met people from all over the world and made some good friends and business contacts. The first memorable moment I'd like to highlight goes back to the student house where I stayed for the first year. It was provided by WOKO (ETH accommodation office) and was the home of 170 people, many coming for just one semester and from any country I could think of. This international environment enriched my personal experience here a lot and made my start at ETH much easier. Something else I love about ETH is the flexibility with which one can organize the curriculum. Having the exams at the end of each semester allows you to organize your time as you think best and also fit in some leisure and travelling in the middle. Further, I really enjoyed the two mandatory labs, Algorithms Lab (Algolab) and Advanced Systems Lab (ASL). Algolab was an incredibly challenging course, dealing with a topic that I think is not something you can learn in the traditional sense - that is with a book and lectures - but one for which you have to practice, practice and practice. I'm glad I took it because this course was a great preparation for interviews at large software companies like Google and Microsoft. I'll always remember staying up for at least five hours just trying to solve a single problem, not giving up inspite of not making any progress. In the ASL, I learned to be very organized to meet the milestones of the projects – a skill that is indispensable in the professional world.
In your opinion, what has been the biggest change compared to your experience as a Bachelor's student?
The realization that grades are not the only important thing in building in building oneself an excellent career trajectory. I still try to maintain very good grades, but I guess I am a bit more relaxed. The time I earlier would have spent to turn a 5.5 into a 6 (the highest grade in Switzerland) I nowadays rather invest in writing code for a project or in joining an event to keep growing a network with smart people that may later turn into partners.
If you had the possibility to change one thing at ETH, what would it be?
I think I would make one big campus for all ETH departments rather than the current separation into two campuses. One single campus would foster the mixing and mingling of people of all departments and thus enable interdisciplinary encounters. I must admit, most of my friends that I met on campus also study computer science. And all my non-computer science friends I met at social events. Maybe I should be more active to meet students from other faculties also on campus. But I feel that in our faculty buildings students tend to be isolated from members of other faculties.
Assuming that after your graduation, you decide to stay in Switzerland. What are your personal and professional aspirations in this country?
I am very grateful to Switzerland and to ETH for the great education I have received thanks to my Excellence Scholarship. I would love to stay in Switzerland, but as someone coming from a non-EU country, it is not sure if I can. I am often in contact with people with whom I would like to work on small projects and I would very much enjoy to be able to contribute to start-ups on a project basis. I believe Zurich is a place of innovation and therefore needs capable developers. And I'm always excited to jump into something and give it my 150% until a viable prototype is ready from which an idea can be validated and further development by an organized team can be made. At the moment, I’m hoping to work for a big company and to build some valuable experience as an engineer and eventually project manager. Personally, I'm trying each day to integrate more into the Swiss way of life. Having a Swiss girlfriend helps a lot and I am really committed to trying to fit in here.