Every year, EPFL offers funded research internships to students from all over the world. Selection is
competitive, and selected
students almost always have near perfect CGPA. Research experience, on the other hand, is not a
prerequisite.
Deadline to apply is around end of January. You can find the official website
here.
How to apply
Documents Needed
To apply, you'll need the following:
- An academic CV.
- Transcript.
- A one page letter of motivation.
The CV
The CV is probably the most important aspect of your application after your CGPA and class rank. You
can check my current
CV
here and the version I sent to EPFL last year
here for a sample.
Some notes on the CV.
-
It's okay to have a one page or a longer CV. There are no concrete rules. (I sent a detailed 3 page
CV and was selected and
there have been people who sent a terse 1 page CV and were selected).
- I would recommend that you make your CV in latex. It might seem like a lot of work at first but
in the long run, it saves time (It's easier to maintain a CV in latex), and results in a
professional looking CV. You can find some good templates
here.
-
Feel free to share your CV with me at "kjaved@ualberta.ca" (or over slack) if you want my opinion on
it.
Letter of Motivation
In the letter of motivation, you should explain your scientific interests, and why you are applying. One of
the goals of
the Summer@EPFL program is to encourage students to pursue higher studies, and to encourage them
to apply to EPFL for masters/PhD; if your goals align with that of the program, it would be helpful
to mention your goals. Lastly, while I can't share my letter of motivation, I would be more than
happy to give you advice on yours.
Some other important points:
-
Not all labs accept interns every year. You can check if a lab is accepting interns by checking the
homepage of the director
of the lab, or by contacting the secretary of the lab (You can find the email address of
the secretary on the webpage of the lab). That being said, don't spam the secretary. Only
send an email if you are truly interested in working in a lab.
-
The vision lab headed by Prof. Pascal Fua generally does NOT accept interns. Only apply to the
vision lab after contacting
the secretary of the lab.
-
More often than not, you'd be working with a PhD or a post doc instead of a professor. If you find
the work of a lab really
interesting, you can email the PhD students of the lab (Contact information is available
on the webpage of the lab) mentioning that you are interested in an internship, and asking
if he/she would be accepting any interns. (You can also contact the professor but there is
little chance that she/he will reply). Note that a generic email won't help (It can in-fact
hurt your chances). Only send an email to a PhD/PostDoc/Professor after you have read about
the on-going work of the lab (By reading the recently published papers), and are interested
in the work (Your email should indicate that you have read their work). I met many interns
during the internships who were selected after sending a compelling email to a PhD/PostDoc/Professor
so this is not a bad strategy.
I might be adding other content on this page over-time. Also, feel free to email me if you have any
other questions.