Official structure checklist
From Pre-Proposal for Master thesis (PDF). Maximum 500 words on a separate sheet; references are not counted. Planning tool, not an official ETH decision.
What the pre-proposal is — and is not
The Financial Aid Office says the pre-proposal is an important part of the Excellence application, together with grades, the motivation letter, and recommendation letters. Through it, the selection committee assesses your ability to deliberate a scientific topic independently and to design a research project.
The actual Master's thesis is written in the final semester, based on later coursework. The final topic is defined during the Master's with your supervisor. The pre-proposal is an outline of a possible thesis that can feed that later conversation. It is not a signed supervisor contract.
Align the idea with research fields of lecturers on the programme you are applying to (stated on the older application form and still good practice). Results must be achievable in 4–6 months — check the duration in the programme regulations.
Plagiarism and interviews
The ESOP page and the PDF agree: develop the text independently. Work already done at ETH or elsewhere must be referenced. All forms of plagiarism disqualify the scholarship application. The ESOP page adds that negligent or intentional misinformation can exclude you from admission or later revoke admission and the scholarship.
The PDF says that as part of evaluation you are interviewed by a professor or scientist and the project proposal will also be discussed. The ESOP page says selection might include a phone/VC interview in February. Treat those as the same process unless ETH tells you otherwise, and keep the CV number live.
Practical limits
- Official FAQ: maximum 500 words without references.
- Language: German or English.
- Use paragraphs and subheadings. The PDF invites that structure; it does not require a fixed template file.
- Do not paste a lab's unpublished grant text as if it were yours. That is exactly the misinformation ETH warns about.