ETH Zurich Excellence Scholarship (ESOP) 2027: Full Funding for Top Bachelor's Graduates

If you're finishing a Bachelor's degree with grades in the top 10% of your class, ETH Zurich will pay for your entire Master's tuition, living costs, and the works through the Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme (ESOP). About 60 students get this each year, and the funding covers CHF 12,000 per semester (rising to CHF 13,500 from the HS27 intake), plus a full tuition fee waiver, for the whole length of your Master's. The next application window is short: November 1 to November 30, 2026.

This isn't a separate scholarship application you file after getting in. You apply for ESOP at the same time as your Master's admission, through the same portal, in the same month. Miss that window and you can't apply later, even if you're admitted to ETH anyway.

Quick Facts

Who is eligible

The bar is specific: you need to be in the top 10% of your Bachelor's degree cohort, which ETH treats as equivalent to a grade A. This is self-assessed at the application stage. You're the one claiming it, not waiting for a university to certify it but the admissions committee will check it against your transcript.

Beyond that:

• You must be applying for a Master's programme at ETH Zurich (MAS Master of Advanced Studies programmes don't qualify).
• You can't already be enrolled in an ETH Master's, and you can't already hold a Master's degree. This one trips people up: if you finished a Master's elsewhere and want to do a second one at ETH, ESOP is closed to you.
• Current ETH Bachelor's students moving into a consecutive Master's are eligible too, and can even start ESOP while on a leave of absence, a detail that doesn't show up on most scholarship listings.
• There's no nationality restriction. ETH doesn't say this explicitly on the ESOP page itself, but it's consistent across ETH's own scholarship listings and third-party trackers, and matches how ETH runs its other merit scholarships.

What's not required: there's no separate ESOP essay or motivation letter beyond your regular Master's application materials, and no fixed IELTS/TOEFL score published specifically for ESOP you just need to meet whatever English requirement your chosen Master's programme already has.

What it covers

• Tuition: full waiver, for the entire regular duration of your Master's (three or four semesters, depending on the programme).
• Living and study costs: CHF 12,000 per semester. From the HS27 intake, this rises to CHF 13,500 per semester.
• Mentorship and network access: ESOP includes a mentorship component and access to the ETH Foundation's network, this is part of what separates it from a plain fee waiver.
• Duration: the scholarship runs for the standard length of your specific Master's programme, not a fixed universal term.

What isn't spelled out on the official page: airfare, health insurance, or relocation costs. Don't assume those are included in the budget for them separately, and check with the Financial Aid Office if you need clarity before committing.

How to apply step by step

1. Confirm you're finishing your Bachelor's on schedule and sitting in the top 10% of your cohort. Do this before anything else, everything downstream depends on it.
2. Start your Master's application through eApply, ETH's online application system, as early in the window as you can. ESOP isn't a bolt-on form; it's submitted as part of this same application.
3. Write a pre-proposal for your Master's thesis. This is the part most applicants underestimate ETH provides a specific guidelines document for it (available as a PDF from the ESOP page), and you're expected to develop it yourself using proper academic citation. ETH is explicit that plagiarism or misrepresentation here gets you excluded from admission, or has your scholarship revoked later if discovered after the fact.
4. Line up two reference letters from professors, if your specific Master's programme doesn't already require references as part of standard admission. The system emails your referees directly once you name them, so give them a heads-up in advance, don't submit their names on November 29th and hope for a fast turnaround.
5. Submit everything within the window: November 1–30, 2026. Both the Master's application and the ESOP materials go in together.
6. Make sure your phone number is current and reachable. Selection may include a phone or video interview in February, and ETH notes explicitly that if you won't be reachable then, you need to tell your study programme coordinator in advance.
7. Wait for the decision, communicated by the end of March 2027. The Admissions Committee for your specific Master's programme evaluates the application first; the final call on funding rests with the Rector of ETH Zurich.

Realistically, steps 2 through 4 the actual application, the pre-proposal, and lining up references take most applicants several weeks of real work, not a weekend. Start well before November 1 if you can.

Competitive reality check and who shouldn't bother applying

Sixty scholarships a year, across every Master's programme ETH offers, for applicants from every country in the world who happen to be finishing a Bachelor's in the top 10% of their cohort that's a narrow funnel. This isn't a scholarship you apply to as a backup plan.

The most common reason people get filtered out early isn't academic, it's eligibility mismatch. Every year some applicants apply while already holding a Master's degree, or while enrolled in one at ETH, not realizing that disqualifies them outright. Others apply for an MAS programme, which doesn't count. Read the eligibility criteria twice before you invest time in the pre-proposal.

The pre-proposal is also where a lot of otherwise-strong applicants lose ground. It's not a formality ETH treats it as a real piece of independent academic work, and a rushed, generic pre-proposal signals exactly that to an admissions committee that's comparing you against genuinely top-tier candidates.

This scholarship is not for you if: you're not in the top 10% of your Bachelor's cohort (self-assessment matters less than the admissions committee's read of your actual transcript), you're applying to an MAS programme, or you already hold a Master's degree. If any of those apply, your time is better spent on a different funded pathway.

FAQ

Can I apply for ESOP after I've already been admitted to an ETH Master's programme?
 No. You have to apply within your Master's programme's first application window for most programmes, that's this November 1–30 window for a HS27 start. You can't retroactively request ESOP funding once you're already enrolled.

I already have a Master's degree in a different field. Can I apply for ESOP for a second Master's?
 No. ETH's eligibility criteria explicitly exclude anyone who already holds a Master's degree, regardless of field.

Do I need to submit IELTS or TOEFL scores specifically for ESOP?
 There's no separate English-language requirement for ESOP itself you need to meet whatever English proficiency requirement your chosen Master's programme already sets for regular admission.

What happens if I'm an ETH Bachelor's student moving straight into an ETH Master's?
 You're eligible, and you're actually given a bit more flexibility ETH says Bachelor's students may start ESOP even while on a leave of absence, which isn't the case for other applicants.

Is the CHF 12,000 (or 13,500) per semester enough to live on in Zurich?
 The official page doesn't address cost of living directly. Zurich is one of the more expensive cities in Europe, so check the ETH Financial Aid Office's general cost-of-living estimates for students before assuming the stipend fully covers rent, food, and insurance.

Where to apply, and what to check next

Apply and read the full official guidelines at ETH Zurich's Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme page. Questions specific to your situation can go to the Financial Aid Office (Dr. Barbara E. Hellermann, +41 44 632 20 23).

If ESOP's top-10% bar feels out of reach or you're not finishing your Bachelor's in time for this window, it's worth checking MastersGrant's listings for Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships (aimed more broadly at postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers) and other merit-based Master's scholarships at EPFL, ETH's sister institution, which runs its own funding programmes on a different cycle.