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An inside look: postgraduate study at EPFL. Part 1



On Habré, recently, the type of articles that describe graduate school, internship, or even immigration for permanent residence to various parts of the globe: from Australia ( 1 and 2 ) to Slovakia is popular. Probably the next two articles I would most like to share with those who are still looking for themselves and for themselves, and to describe in the most detailed way how it looks from the inside - departure to non-native lands for graduate school.


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Remark: for readability, all the material is divided into two parts: admission and the actual life in the country.

Foreword


"We have been fighting for a very long time
so if you want to go somewhere,
it could be implemented.
If you want to leave - go ",
YES. Medvedev at a meeting with students at MSU.

In the summer of 2012, I stopped writing articles for Habr, since the only goal at that time was to enter the EPFL. And it’s not that there was no ready-made material or thoughts that I would like to share with Habr’s readers, the situation was such that I actually survived from the Moscow State University graduate school with a completely trivial and silly wording: “for not participating in the research and production activities of the laboratory”.

Well, what to do if the writing of popular science and well met by respected readers of Habr and several other sites ( Nanometer , 3DNews , etc.) articles devoted to the study of microelectronic devices using various types of microscopy is no longer such an activity (by the way, My group is named "electron microscopy group") ...

As soon as this threat hung, I had to look for an asymmetric answer - after all, we Russians like asymmetric answers, because I absolutely could not bend under the system. For me, this would mean to bury and simply delete from life all those hours and days spent on preparing articles, as well as parting with a sense of freedom in choosing the direction to the degree of candidate of sciences. It's like living in a cage at the zoo. I quickly decided on the place - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne ( EPFL ). According to one of the world ratings, he is on the 29th position, somewhat lagging behind his sister - ETH Zurich , located on the 13th line. Unfortunately, MSU is not even included in the top 100 .

And then, at that time, in the Russian Federation, I didn’t have anything at all, and the illusions, which had kept me at home for some time, somehow vanished by themselves.

Lyrical digression
How did you go to the conference or a tale about the RFBR and state funding of science

Shot in the back does not expect anyone ...
…Who you are? You are not welcome here!
But sail, broke the sail! I repent, I repent, I repent

I would not like to touch on this topic (it is somewhat politicized), but from the perspective of what happened to me, I just can’t help it.

So, in principle, it is not a secret to anyone that in fact the state funding of scientific research has exhausted itself. Exhausted not in the sense that the money ran out or the equipment was not bought, it exhausted itself morally. It is not for nothing that the folklore of the scientific community often comes down to phrases like “Million per kilogram” in relation to projects financed by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, etc.

However, scientists are prudent and unloving people who litter dirty linen in public; therefore, no one ever comes to TV on “intrigue-investigation scandals”, and calmly and peacefully work for the good of the Motherland until something extraordinary happens. These were mega-grants and a reasonable misunderstanding on the part of Western professors why they could not get the materials needed for working on these grants within a reasonable time. It even went so far that the visiting professor addressed the president personally in order to resolve the situation. Last year, there were grandiose delays in payments for already won grants .

And it seems from the outside that there is science in Russia, it is developing and, in principle, everything is fine. “The patient is more alive than dead,” they say to us from the blue ones — sorry, yesterday’s black monitor screens, reporting on the successful commissioning of Skolkovo, the creation of clusters somewhere, the opening of a half-built university on Russky Island, spend RosNanoForums, etc. Take a look at your news feeds and at least a few words about the achievements of Russian science you will find there. Alas, at the moment Russian science is only a well-dressed Barbie doll completely empty, and often rotten from the inside. The Potemkin village of “the times of Ochakovsk and the conquest of the Crimea” ...

Why, you ask? The answers can be countless: from low wages to the love of showing off. Officially, the candidate of chemical sciences in the position of junior researcher at Moscow State University rarely falls to 15-16 thousand (yes, forget that the rector of Moscow State University says - this rate + all possible subsidies and allowances + money from grants, which are usually several + bonuses) . Why, there’s a lot of examples to go about, the pro-rector on science said in plain text that 50 thousand is looking at how to count . Now look at hh.ru how much the courier or cleaning lady gets. Doesn’t it seem to a highly respected reader that Skolkovo is the window dressing that there are excellent centers in Dubna (even with its own synchrotron!), Obninsk, Novosibirsk , Tomsk, etc. Why was it necessary to vbukhivat a lot of money in the infrastructure of Skolkovo, if you can just upgrade the fleet of equipment in these centers, increase the number of rates and raise the basic market "cost" of the candidate of sciences at least to the level of 50-70 thousand ?! "Does not give an answer" (N.V. Gogol)

Well, in our ridiculous grants of 1, 2, 3 million rubles there is simply no money for internship trips (not all foreign universities are generous), conferences, etc., but there is a grant in the RFBR arsenal with the code “mob” (short for words mobility), which implies 1 trip (mob_z) abroad and 1 trip of Russia (mob_g) to participate in a scientific conference. A brilliant idea, because we support young scientists, give them the opportunity to make contacts with foreign or domestic colleagues, and so on and so forth, and so on ...

Unfortunately, both times I was let down by my naivety in declarability, but not by the obligation to execute anything on the territory of our vast Motherland.

The first time I wanted to take part in the EMRS spring meeting. My abstracts were selected for submission within the poster session. Application written and sent. Waiting for an answer. A month remains before the conference, two weeks before the intended departure comes the answer "application rejected." Hot on the heels we punch why, because the conference is “strong”, the report, even if it’s poster on it, is a kind of achievement. It turns out that “too many applications” were submitted from our faculty, and indeed the mob_z is more oriented towards graduate students (I was then a last year student). Sorry, but what about the WTF ?! Okay, the poster is still prepared - took part in absentia. Thank you, fellow graduate students who have gone!

The second time - already in the status of a graduate student. The conference was chosen from the top, but about which very few people knew in our department, they want, as it turned out, as a consequence - very well in the RAS institutes. By the way, it will be held next time in Moscow in 2014 (it’s still struck). And, lo and behold, the RFBR confirms the receipt of a grant! At the same time, the feature of all of our science is this: the result at its own expense now, and the money - well, the day after tomorrow, come up ...


Welcome-party at the pool in a 5-star hotel where the conference was held


Entrance to the Hospitaller Citadel


Turkey in the distance


View from the fortress to the Mediterranean Sea


The final party and banquet

So, I traveled at my own expense, rested a little, met a lot of interesting people, both from Russia and from Europe, and even Mexico. And the day of redemption came. Upon return, you must submit an expense report (we will not go into the details of insanity with the translation of checks into Russian, etc.). As soon as possible, I register a report in the RFBR Grant-Express system, as it is September and an understanding that December is already very close. The rules for filing a report, as usual, change at the very last moment. As a result, it is necessary to collect a bunch of papers, sign some trilateral agreements between the “grant holder, his employer, and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research” with very interesting conditions, if you read it through, register your trip to CITIS !!! That is, my journey then takes place in RosStat as a research project made in the Russian Federation - on the issue of statistics ...

Taking into account the rest of the accountants, the employment of some, then others, all the papers go to the RFBR on October 16, 2012. I think, well, if something is wrong, in 2 weeks they will definitely see it, and I can correct it. The answer comes only in a month - it is necessary to urgently engage in chichencrafting. The cost estimate, an example of which on the site of the RFBR itself, is not even in sight, so it had to be filled in the image and likeness of the last successfully submitted project that financed through this fund (its completion date is March 2012, approximately), it turned out that it was necessary to forward the line Transport services: air tickets - N thousand rubles "to" Transport services: air tickets Moscow - Rhodes - Moscow - N thousand rubles ", and this decoding is given literally in the next piece of paper.

We forward, sign, scan, send to the person who asked for this edit to be carried out - Maria Baktysheva, International Relations Office. Silence for several weeks (7 letters from my side does not count). Ultimately, I ask you to contact her by phone a friend from Moscow, since I am already in another country by that time. The subsequent dialogue even does not want to retell, its content is approximately as follows: what have you stuck with me, I have already explained everything to everyone, enough to engage in nonsense, do not take my time.

Tell me, do you think this is normal? When the person himself asked to correct the estimate, an example of which is nowhere to be filled. Why in the Russian Federation a scientist should deal with estimates? Why can not everything be centralized through the main accounting department of Moscow State University? Why why why…

Again, through acquaintances who have already dealt with the whole system, and who are also spitting from all this bureaucratic lawlessness, I recognize the phone number (my letter to Ms. Baktysheva with a polite request for contacting the person in charge was also safely ignored) one of Few normal sane women in the fund - Irina Zhurbina. She checked the document within 5 minutes by the project number, promising to sign payment documents within a few days. It was already 06.12.12 in the yard, it took a month to change 2 pieces of paper !!!

Total The company burned out, somewhere in the last week of December the money for the trip came back, but the conclusion that I can only draw from this whole story - never, under any circumstances, if we are not talking about a serious amount of money, do not mess with any state. bodies financing domestic science. And yet I am eternally grateful to my supervisor at Moscow State University for helping me through this attack - a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research;)


NB! If you still suffer from the choice and do not know what exactly and at whose expense you want to do, then I can advise the following set of fairly useful sites:


EPFL admission



We must pay tribute to how the EPFL site is superbly structured, besides, it is full of information: from the news of the groups working in the EPFL to the announcements about the next trip to CERN from ACIDE (trade union). With ease, having found a page devoted to PhD at this university, I realized that there are globally two possibilities to get the cherished position of a PhD student: write the professors of the relevant departments and laboratories in the old fashioned way or simply go to a certain doctoral degree for each direction school (in my case, EDCH ).

After some time, the circle of “suspected” professors was identified, whom I would be interested to work with. Finally, only two remained: one deals with 2D semiconductors based on MoS2 (he invited me for an interview at EPFL, the trip is usually paid at the expense of the inviting party within a month after returning home), and the second - by electrochemistry and physical chemistry.

Of course, having some experience with the discovery of microelectronic components (although, perhaps, it is not complete from the point of view of a researcher), I would like to get exactly to the first one. However, after, in principle, a successful interview, in which you had to tell about yourself and present your background on the results of the master’s work, unfortunately, I was not accepted for this position. Perhaps this is due to the financial component. If I understand correctly, a professor pays for PhD-students (for scientific work, it usually takes about 75% of the time) and the university (for teaching - the remaining 25%).

By the way, it is worth making a reservation for those who will look for a position in this way. God grant that 10% of your efforts will be crowned with at least some success, bring at least some, even negative, fruits. Often, you simply do not respond or your letters go to daddy Spam. Also, imagine for a moment that you are a professor at a top university. Hundreds of people, if not thousands, “knock” on you annually with a request to take them to graduate school, post-doc, etc. At some point, you simply stop responding to such letters of inquiry. And even if the letter is written in perfect British English with fanfare from the series “You are such a cool professor, and I love this <subject name> so much, please take me to yourself”, then with a rather high probability the letter will still be in the basket without any answer.

But I am still very grateful to those who found a minute to write: " Sorry, we do not have open positions / vacancies or funding for your stay here ."

However, now I don’t have to be bored, because the work is interesting and is devoted to using lasers to analyze molecules and nanoparticles at the interface of two immiscible phases (air-water or water-oil). To some extent, this is a significant extension of my knowledge and skills, what is commonly called competencies in the modern world.

Somewhat later, in the next section, I will return to a detailed description of the environment and the laboratory I entered, for now let me dwell on the admission procedure.

Admission procedures - let's look at the details


After you have decided on professors and laboratories (yes, it is in the plural, since there is never a guarantee that you will be taken to a particular place), then you can start writing applications for admission to the appropriate doctoral school, which "belongs" to one or another laboratory. Based on the experience of comrades "in misfortune" ( 1 and 2 ), it may also be necessary for IT specialists to undergo additional internships.

It will still have to do this (move to a certain school), even if you are looking for a professor, and he reciprocates you. In addition, the chances that your application, if it comes from school by internal mail, will be paid much more attention than for regular email, which was lost in a pile of spam.

For example, only having arrived and having practically no connections, I received 5-7 letters daily with invitations to seminars, lectures, various university-wide advertisements (a la check your health for 50 francs and 30 minutes), etc.
In addition, unlike many, for example, American universities do not need to pay any fee for filing and consideration of the application, which, you see, bribes to apply. The application process itself is quite simple; you can read it here .

Basic documents that will be needed:


Yes, you should not confuse motivation letter with CL (cover letter - actually the letter that you send to the professor by mail and which he reads first), and even more so with CV (curriculum vitae - a brief description of experience and education with the main ones received results). Basically, I would recommend this website for writing ML and CL.

Despite the fact that these letters, in general, are composed of the same good sample (see the link above), you should not get carried away and just change the names of professors.Approach the process creatively, show your personal interest in the position and your strengths, interests that could be useful when working in this group.

I did the translation of the insert to the bachelor diploma independently, which saved me from 500 to 1000 rubles. The agency needs only to check and translate some trivia. In general, the translation with the certification will cost about 3 thousand rubles. As for the master's diploma, our faculty was one of the first to switch to the Bologna system, and our course was first given new-degree diplomas, in two languages ​​at once, and there was no need to translate it.

The experience of entering postgraduate education in Belgium and Germany

, , , , , . , . , .

– , c'est la vie . , ~2 10 000 . , . , 14 …


Another headache is the mandatory master courses for holders of specialist diplomas. That is, if you need to earn only 12 credits with a master's degree in a few years (yes, you will have to learn a little), then if nothing has changed, specialists should take a couple of additional master's courses to get 4 more extra credits.

Let us return to the knowledge of languages ​​and the availability of relevant certificates. Globally, there are three systems TOEFL (American), IELTS (UK) and CAE(Cambridge, for advanced, with him you can go to the teachers). The first two certificates are valid for a couple of years, the last one is permanent. But in order to pass the last exam, knowledge at the level of Proficient is needed, so - let's not lie to ourselves - this is not enough for anyone from mere mortals, not linguists.

In the EPFL, there is no obligation to provide this certificate in contrast to, for example, universities from the USA , Australia and the UK .

Firstly, this is a significant saving of effort, time and money (each exam is ~ $ 250-300 + preparation from 18,000 for a half-time intensive course), because without practice, everyday practice, even the native language is forgotten extremely quickly, what can we say about second language at intermediate / upper-intermediate level.

Secondly, the EPFL has fairly decent language courses in all 4 languages: English, French, German, and Italian with various programs (from weekly intensiveness 4.5 hours per day to writing prose scientific articles) from beginners to C2.

And, thirdly, I already had a more or less good knowledge of the language (and went to Germany for an internship and even an articleI managed to write) in the context of my scientific work, although at the university I was given a “choir” for the exam in the relevant subject. As practice has shown in the future, I quite tolerably cope with the level of B2.


This is how an intensive English course takes place at EPFL

By the way, native speakers (Irishman and Valianka, for example) and Fringlish speakers (mixtures of French and English) have rather specific accents, which you just need to get used to. And naturally, they say they are not very articulate, swallowing sounds (yes, that really go far, watch yourself in everyday life - sure that you follow all the rules of phonetics ?!), and the Chinese and Latinos have their own special words, due to the lack of some sounds in their languages ​​(j, w). Perhaps the only person I understand 100% is German.

In general, when filling in the application form for a doctoral school, you will still show your level by writing a motivation letter and indicating how you speak English, for example, 3, 4 or 5. In addition, each of the reviewers will receive a letter from a link where he will have to evaluate you in some respects, write a review and indicate the level of your English.

So, the form is filled, the documents are loaded, it remains only to specify the professors to whom this application will fall (we have already selected them). It is not necessary, in my opinion, to dwell only on 1-2, you can, as it were, look into adjacent areas, but look - do not overdo it!

If everything is done correctly and your candidacy arranged for the administration of the doctoral school conducting the recruitment, then within 2-3 weeks you will receive an email notification stating that you are “recommended for admission”. So far this is only a piece of paper, if before that it was not supported by the positive response of the professor, but still the chances with it are slightly higher. And if you could not immediately get the position, try again to send letters to specific professors - maybe!

the contract


Ultimately, a one-year employment contract is concluded between the EPFL and the graduate student. Most likely, it will be sent by DHL with a bunch of different papers: from the description of the pension system to the rules for using the network and computers in the EPFL. One of the copies is used for passing through bureaucratic formalities, while the other is signed and sent back. Write down about 2500-3000 rubles, if you do not want the Post of Russia to go more than a month with a probability of getting a little more than 100% somewhere. From my own experience - postcards from Moscow by airmail to Lausanne flew 5 weeks.

Visa


Visa (Schengen, type D ) in the Embassy of Switzerland is from 6 to 8 weeks. They say that since the end of 2012, the visa center of the embassy has been working, so there should be no difficulties with filing documents. However, for some unknown reason, I was forced to wait an additional two weeks before the first meeting with the embassy employees, they say, the queue for this type of visa is different than for tourist ones ... In total, you will have to fork out another ~ 2,500 -3,000 rubles.

During the specified time, the entire package of documents is sent to the cantonal authorities (in my case, the canton of Vaud), where the decision is made to issue a visa. After 6-7 weeks, you can safely write with a request to the e-mail address indicated on the slip issued by the embassy, ​​and in the event of a positive answer, come in, without a queue, give the passport, and pick it up the next day with the visa pasted in.

It now remains to buy a ticket to Geneva, and there the train is close to Lausanne. This is not an easy task. There is no direct flight. A flight back there will be cheaper than a one-time trip one and a half times. With a transfer in Munich, you can fly for 6 hours and ~ 14-15 thousand rubles. Well, actually waiting for X hours, but for now ...

Housing


It is almost possible to forget about finding housing remotely on the spot. It is better to immediately use the recurring EPFL proposal and settle for 3 months in some similarity to the hostel (for this you need to write tearful letters in the Logement ). You can also ask the secretary of the professor to help you in this difficult task (especially the secretaries know the secret weapon - French!). If absolutely everything is bad, then there is always a way out ).

Then you need to get a password from the university account (GASPAR), it is advisable to permit B (not done quickly - from 2 to 3 months), at least a couple of forms with the notification of the salary received and only then start looking seriously, thoughtfully for a permanent residence. The reasons are trivial - housing turnover, especially during hot periods are September and October, and it is not a snap; now there are no graduate students even in student dormitories.

Well, that's all for now. I hope it was useful and interesting. To be continued ...


First , the full list of published articles on Habré:

Opening the Nvidia 8600M GT chip , a more detailed article is given here: Modern chips - a view from the inside
An inside look: CD and HDD
An inside look: LED bulbs
An inside look: the LED industry in Russia
An inside look: Flash and RAM
An inside view: the world around us
Inside View: LCD and E-Ink Displays
An inside look: matrix digital cameras
An inside look: Plastic Logic
An inside look: RFID and other tags
An inside look: postgraduate study at EPFL. Part 1
An inside look: postgraduate study at EPFL. Part 2
An inside view: the world around us - 2
An inside view: the world around us - 3
View from the inside: the world around us - 4

and 3DNews:
Microview: a comparison of modern smartphones displays

Secondly , in addition to the blog on HabraHabr , articles and videos can be read and viewed on Nanometer.ru , YouTube , and Dirty .

Sometimes briefly, and sometimes not so much about the news of science and technology, you can read on my Telegram channel - welcome;)

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/169099/

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