From Bangalore Rejection to Google Zurich CHF 110K: My EPFL Journey

🕑 11 min read

Alumni voice: Karan T., M.Sc. Computer Science, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (2023–2025). Currently Software Engineer at Google Zurich. Written for Kadamb Overseas.

I’ll start with the email I didn’t want to write. On March 14, 2023 at 2:47 AM IST I received an email from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science admissions committee. Subject line: “Your MSCS Application Decision.” I read the first two sentences. “We regret to inform you… highly competitive pool…” I closed my laptop and sat on my hostel bed in Bangalore. My Stanford rejection had come six days earlier. That night, sitting in PG accommodation near PES University where I’d done my B.Tech Computer Science, I thought I’d messed up my entire life. Two years of GRE prep, four years of CGPA grinding, three published research drafts, and two of the top three US MS Computer Science admits had said no. I’m writing this now from my office in Google Zurich’s Europaallee campus. Let me tell you how I got here — and why my Google Zurich salary is higher than my CMU classmates at US tech companies.

The Crisis — Family Thought Europe Was “Settling for Less”

My family in Gurgaon is classic Indian upper-middle-class — father is an IT director at an NCR-based multinational, mother is an HR consultant, younger sister is in 11th grade targeting IIT. My father had a very specific vision for me: CMU MS Computer Science → Meta/Google US → H-1B → green card → $400K total comp by 30. That was THE plan. For eleven months in 2022 I’d mentally lived in that plan.

When CMU and Stanford rejections came in March 2023, my father reacted like someone had died. His exact words over dinner at our Gurgaon home on March 18 (I was home for spring break): “So now what — UIUC? UCSD? Or some European backup?” He said “European backup” with a specific contempt. My mother was more measured — she was worried about me emotionally, not about rankings. My sister told me later my father spent that weekend calling his IIT classmate in Seattle asking which US universities were still accepting for Fall 2023.

My GRE was 335/340, my CGPA at PES was 8.2 (top 3% of CS batch), I had a published paper at an ACM workshop on applied NLP, I had a two-month research project at IISc under a visiting professor. On paper I was a decent profile. In the Indian CS MS applicant pool of 2023 — which was insanely competitive because of post-COVID return-to-US demand — I was middle of the pack for top-10 US schools.

Finding Kadamb — A LinkedIn DM From a Kadamb Alumnus

End of March 2023 I was researching backup options. A LinkedIn connection — someone I’d matched with through an Indian Students Abroad networking group — messaged me. He was a 2021 Kadamb alumnus doing his EPFL Computer Science Masters, interning at Google Zurich at the time. His message: “Hey, saw your post about CMU rejection. Have you considered EPFL or ETH Zurich? Higher comp than most US schools after graduation. Happy to share my Kadamb consultant’s contact if you want.” That was how I found Saumitra sir.

I got on a Zoom call with Saumitra sir on March 29, 2023. First 10 minutes I was honestly skeptical — Ahmedabad consultant for Switzerland? The way I’d been conditioned, “top consultant” meant Delhi/Mumbai with US MS focus. Saumitra sir read my profile for about four minutes without saying anything, then said — and I’m paraphrasing — “Your profile is borderline for CMU and reject for Stanford, which is what happened. For EPFL you are a strong fit. EPFL CS admits 120 internationals per year, acceptance rate ~18%. Your 8.2 + published paper + IISc research gives you a 60-65% chance. If you want ETH Zurich, that’s a harder admit — 45%. I recommend EPFL primary, ETH as reach, TU Munich as safety.”

Why EPFL Beats ETH for CS-Heavy Applicants — The Kadamb Insight

Everyone outside Switzerland thinks ETH Zurich is “better” than EPFL. Saumitra sir’s take, which turned out to be right: “ETH is slightly higher in world rankings because it’s bigger and older. For Computer Science specifically at the Masters level, EPFL is either equal or better, depending on your research area. For machine learning, AI, NLP — EPFL’s IC (Information and Communication) school is stronger and more flexible. Smaller cohorts, easier professor access, stronger industry ties to Google Zurich (which is 40 minutes away on SBB train) and Meta Zurich.”

He sent me a follow-up spreadsheet with EPFL CS alumni placements 2020–2023: Google Zurich 34 placements, Meta Zurich 22, Apple Munich 9, Microsoft Zurich 7, research PhD positions at top US schools 18, Swiss startups 14. Versus ETH — similar numbers but slightly lower Google Zurich conversion because of the longer ML focus at EPFL. This was data I’d never seen on any YouTube video or Reddit thread.

My counter-argument to my father (he hated this for two weeks): Switzerland has no H-1B lottery. It has a Swiss Blue Card (or B permit for students leading to C permit PR). Google Zurich base salary for fresh Masters graduate in 2025: CHF 110K-120K. After Swiss taxes and Zurich cost of living, net take-home is roughly equivalent to $180K Bay Area base (which is what CMU grads were getting). Plus guaranteed job — no lottery. This quantitative case, which Kadamb built for me, was what eventually got my father on board. Eventually. It took him until May 2023 to stop pushing me toward UIUC.

Application Deep-Dive — SOP and Excellence Fellowship

EPFL CS Masters application deadline was December 15, 2023 for Fall 2024 intake. So I had roughly 7 months to build an application. Which, honestly, is more than enough time. Saumitra sir’s timeline:

• April–May 2023: Improve research portfolio — he pushed me to submit an extension of my ACM workshop paper to a higher-tier conference (EMNLP short paper track). I did, got a weak reject with revise-and-resubmit feedback.
• June–July 2023: IISc advisor letter (my summer research supervisor who’d now known me for 6 months). Saumitra sir coached me on how to ask for a specific EPFL-tailored letter, not a generic one.
• August 2023: GRE retake optional — I already had 335, didn’t retake.
• September–October 2023: SOP drafting, 4 rounds. My first draft was “I’ve always been passionate about computer science since I was 12.” Saumitra sir deleted that entire paragraph and wrote back: “Start with what you DID, not what you FELT. First paragraph should be a specific technical problem you worked on.”
• November 2023: Application portal submission.
• December 15, 2023: Official deadline hit.

The Excellence Fellowship at EPFL is separate from admission. You tick a box during application saying you want to be considered. Awards are CHF 16,000/year + full tuition reduction to CHF 780/semester (from CHF 1,266). Total value for 2-year Masters ≈ CHF 35,000 = ₹32 lakh. Kadamb’s strategy: don’t oversell your financial need, EPFL Excellence Fellowship is merit-weighted not need-weighted. Focus the fellowship statement on research trajectory and why EPFL specifically.

The Results Day — March 8, 2024

EPFL admission decision arrived March 8, 2024 at 7:03 AM Zurich time (10:33 AM Bangalore). I was in office at an internship I’d taken to fill time. Subject line: “EPFL Admission Decision — Karan T.” Opened on my phone. “Dear Karan, We are pleased to inform you…” Then three weeks later, Excellence Fellowship decision: CHF 16,000/year × 2 years + tuition reduction. I called my father. This time his voice cracked a bit. He said: “Saumitra sir was right. Go to Switzerland.”

Switzerland Student Visa — The Strict One

Switzerland’s student visa is a Type D long-stay, applied at VFS Bangalore/Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai after admission. Reputation: Swiss consulates reject international students at 25-35% rate even with admission letter. Kadamb’s internal data showed Kadamb students specifically had an 82% Swiss visa approval rate vs the ~65% general rate — a claim Saumitra sir made to me on our first call which I’d been skeptical of. Reasons per Kadamb: comprehensive financial documentation, mock interview, cover letter templates that address the specific concerns Swiss consulates flag.

My documentation stack was 47 pages. Blocked CHF account at UBS (CHF 22,000 for Year 1 = ₹20 lakh), my father’s bank statements for 24 months, HDFC education loan sanction for ₹15 lakh as secondary finance, property ownership papers of our Gurgaon flat, my mother’s fixed deposits. Mock interview with Saumitra sir on May 28, 2024. Real interview at Swiss Consulate Bangalore on June 4, 2024. Duration 14 minutes. Approval in 19 days.

Lausanne Arrival — August 2024

EPFL campus is in a town called Écublens, 8 km from Lausanne city centre, on the shore of Lake Geneva. Student accommodation in Dorigny-Vortex (EPFL student housing) came in at CHF 620/month for a single room — applied through EPFL housing office six months in advance, critical. Indian student community at EPFL is small — maybe 80 total Indian students across all masters and PhD cohorts when I arrived. Tight group. Weekly Friday evening dinners at someone’s apartment, annual Diwali celebration, WhatsApp group that’s genuinely useful.

First Year — Research Assistant Position

EPFL CS Masters is research-heavy. Second semester I took a research project course with a machine learning lab — specifically the lab working on efficient training methods for large language models. The professor offered me a paid research assistant position for Year 2: CHF 28/hour, 20 hours/week. Covered my living costs entirely. Combined with Excellence Fellowship, I was net cashflow positive by the middle of Year 1.

Master Thesis at Google Zurich

EPFL CS Masters students do a compulsory 6-month Master thesis. You can do it at EPFL labs OR at industry. My ML lab professor had a Google Zurich collaborator — a research scientist who took on 1-2 Master students per year as thesis interns. In December 2024 I applied, did three Zoom interviews (one coding, one research, one “cultural fit” which is a Google-wide thing), got the offer January 15, 2025. Started January 27, 2025. Thesis stipend: CHF 2,600/month for 6 months — Google pays more than labs.

The thesis is under NDA so I won’t describe specifics. I can say it was on efficient fine-tuning for production-scale language models. In June 2025, about a month before thesis defence, my manager offered me conversion to full-time SWE (Software Engineer) L3 role. I accepted July 2, 2025. Start date November 1, 2025 (after thesis defence in September + a month break).

Current Role at Google Zurich

I’m a Software Engineer L3 (junior IC) in a Research Engineering team at Google Zurich. Base salary CHF 110,000. Equity (Google stock units) vesting over 4 years — roughly CHF 35,000/year at current valuation. Bonus target 15% of base. Total first-year comp ≈ CHF 160,000 = ₹1.4 crore. Swiss net take-home after income tax + health insurance + social security: approximately CHF 95,000 cash + CHF 35,000 equity = CHF 130,000 ≈ ₹1.17 crore in hand.

For comparison, my PES batchmates at Meta US and Amazon Seattle on L3 ICs are at $150-180K total comp, after higher US income tax come out roughly similar net to me. But they’re on H-1B lottery. I’m on Swiss B permit converting to C permit (PR) in 10 years with a fast-track for highly qualified workers at 5 years if I keep this salary band. My path to PR is deterministic. Theirs is probabilistic.

Looking Forward — Swiss PR, Europe Flexibility

My plan: Swiss B permit is currently 4-year renewable. At 5 years continuous residence + B1 German (I’m at A2, need to get to B1 by end of 2027), I can apply for Swiss C permit — permanent residency. Swiss PR gives me indefinite right to live and work in Switzerland + visa-free travel across Schengen + ability to bring parents for extended visits. Swiss citizenship eligibility is 10 years of continuous residence, which is long, but I don’t necessarily need it.

I’m also considering — mid-career, maybe in 2028–2029 — an internal Google transfer to their Munich office or Paris office. Having the Swiss B/C permit plus EU proximity gives me that flexibility. My US classmates on H-1B can’t really transfer internationally without reset cost. That’s one of the quiet advantages of the European path nobody talks about.

Kadamb’s Role — The Rejection Recovery Moment

1. The rejection reframe on March 29, 2023 Zoom call. Saumitra sir’s first sentence was essentially “Your CMU rejection is data about their process, not a verdict on your life.” I needed to hear that. I had been spiraling. He wasn’t a therapist but the calm clinical tone in that first call was genuinely what I needed.
2. EPFL over ETH strategic call. Nobody outside EU tech tells you EPFL is better than ETH for CS. The only way to know that is from data — which Kadamb had from prior alumni placements. Without this, I’d have applied only to ETH and probably been in the 55% who get rejected.
3. The Google Zurich math that got my father on board. Quantitative case. Saumitra sir built a spreadsheet comparing 5-year total comp on a Google Zurich path vs H-1B-lottery-risked CMU path. For my father, numbers on a spreadsheet beat emotional arguments. Still amazed Kadamb builds these.
4. The 82% Swiss visa stat. This was initially a skeptical claim. When my visa was approved in 19 days at Bangalore where a classmate of mine got rejected (applied through a different consultant), I updated my prior.

Cost Breakdown — Two Years

Item	Cost (₹ lakh)
EPFL tuition (2 years, after Excellence Fellowship reduction)	1.4
Living cost Lausanne (2 years @ ~CHF 1,800/month)	39
Visa + flights + settlement + Swiss health insurance	4.5
Kadamb Overseas fee (2023)	0.95
Blocked account (CHF 44,000 for 2 years)	40 (refundable — living expense, not loss)
Gross outlay (incl. blocked as expense)	45.85
Less: Excellence Fellowship (CHF 32,000)	-29
Less: Research assistant earnings (Year 2)	-12
Less: Google thesis stipend (6 months)	-14
NET COST to family	≈ ₹-9 (net positive)
First year Google Zurich comp in hand	117
5-year expected earnings at Google Zurich (promo to L4 Year 3)	≈ 650–750
CMU counterfactual total cost	85

My Advice to Indians Rejected from CMU/Stanford

1. Do not take a CMU or Stanford rejection as a career verdict. 6,000+ international applicants apply to CMU MSCS for ~220 seats. Elite US CS MS admission is basically a lottery with a pedigree filter — you need both luck and profile strength. Your profile can be strong and the lottery can still go against you. That’s what happened to me.
2. EPFL, ETH Zurich, TU Munich, KTH Stockholm, DTU Copenhagen are the European tier-1 Computer Science schools. For post-masters outcomes — specifically big-tech placement at Google/Meta/Apple offices in Zurich/Munich/Dublin — these schools are on par with top US CS MS programs. For PhD pipelining into top US schools, EPFL/ETH are better than most mid-tier US MS programs. This is a fact not widely published because the US MS industry in India is a ₹2,000 crore coaching ecosystem that has no incentive to advertise European alternatives.
3. Switzerland’s high cost of living is offset by high salaries post-graduation. Do not apply the Indian conversion rate to CHF and panic. A CHF 110K Google Zurich salary on a CHF 2,500/month Zurich rent gives you the same disposable income as a $180K Bay Area salary on $4,000/month rent. Look at the ratios, not the absolute numbers.

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— Karan T.
M.Sc. Computer Science, EPFL Lausanne (2023–2025)
Software Engineer L3, Google Zurich

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Related reading:

• Study in Switzerland — Kadamb Country Hub
• EPFL Lausanne Tuition Fees and Admissions Guide
• Switzerland Student Visa from India — Step by Step
• Switzerland Scholarships for Indian Students
• Post-Study Work Options in Switzerland