Students prizes: worth gold in a CV
Magistrale EPFL - © Christian Brun
No fewer than seventy prizes are awarded each year to EPFL students, mainly to those who have completed their master degrees, but also to those who have obtained their bachelor. Although the monetary value of the prizes is not very high, the document they receive is worth gold when included in their CV.
The monetary value of students’ prizes varies between 200 and 2500 Swiss francs, but the real value of these awards is without doubt the value-added in the curriculum vitae of the student who is completing his master or even his bachelor. They are valuable assets that enable him or her to stand out in a job market that’s becoming more and more competitive. As Etienne Dufey, former student in civil engineering and winner of the Stucky and IM Maggia prize, remarks: “It’s certainly a ‘plus’ for anyone’s CV. And what seems to me to be even more important is the chance to meet with professionals in the field, to whom the student must present his work in order to obtain the prize, as this creates contacts that can be very important in furthering a career.”
The prizes are divided into two categories:
- Two-thirds of them are jury prizes. In these cases, the student must register, write a letter of motivation showing that his chosen diploma subject corresponds to the prize he or she is in competition for, and submit a given number of copies of this work. A supporting letter from his teacher is also a valuable advantage. No other work needs to be provided, apart from that already done by the student for his/her diploma.
- A third of them are prizes given for marks, related to the results obtained by the student during his/her bachelor, master or foundation course study program. These are automatically awarded.
These awards can be funded by EPFL teachers and their family, public institutions, such as the Commune of Ecublens or Chavannes-près-Renens, or companies that reward work related to their activities – see complete list of prizes. Bombardier Transportation will award prizes for work in Mechanical Engineering whereas the BCV will award prizes for architectural work. Not all domains receive an award at present, for example Life Sciences. It’s important to note that EPFL also gives prizes to reward the best bachelor, master or foundation course study programs. A novelty for 2011: A3, the Association of EPFL graduates, will present a prize for the best master study program. The award ceremony takes place every year during the Magistrale – Graduation Day – which is held in a marquee with over 3000 parents, professors and guests present, or in the departments of the winner, on the same day.
Surprisingly, for some years there are no candidates for the prizes. Students don’t always realize the opportunity that these awards represent, and often only take part after their teachers have suggested that they should! In addition, the cost of printing the number of copies requested by the companies can be dissuasive, since it can sometimes amount to more than the award itself. In Civil Engineering, for example, printing the blueprints is often very expensive. Since they are not guaranteed to get the prize, they prefer not to take part. What’s more, the jury doesn’t always manage to decide between the candidates, so sometimes the prize money is shared out between several winners. “I’ve tried to suggest to companies that they could allow students to deliver their work on a CD, but most of them insist on having printed copies”, explains Maureen Coleman, responsible for the students’ awards (prizes) at EPFL Academic Affairs. It also happens that when they have finished their master, the graduates-to-be forget to apply: “Even if the deadline for entering is 19 August 2011 at 12:00 noon, I encourage the students not to wait, and to already give me the necessary documents”, adds Maureen Coleman.
So we would like to remind all the EPFL students who wish to take part in a jury award that they can register until 19 August 2011 at 12:00 noon, but the sooner the better, in order to have enough time to complete all the steps, and if necessary get support from their teachers. The website prix-etudiants.epfl.ch explains the whole prize structure, so why deprize yourself of this opportunity?