First of all, if you don’t speak German: No need to apply. All undergraduate programs will contain some amount of German courses, and in order to get admitted you have to prove that you can speak German at least at C1 level.
Once you do that, you will be most likely be required to take an admissions exam, consisting of questions in the natural sciences and mathematics for the most part. Finding a job in Switzerland as a Non-Swiss and Non-EU student will be difficult, to say the least. There will be no general electives. You will apply for a course and not for admission in general, like in (almost) all European universities. ETH doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your fancy sports or extracurriculars. ETH states on their website that you should have about 1800 Swiss Francs to cover all costs (insurance, tuition, cost of living, accommodation etc.). Once you’re in, which is not that hard to do, you’re on your own. Certain exams have failure rates as high as 50%. There will be no personal assistance to guide you, and you are expected to be much more self-reliant.
Graduate studies (Master’s degrees and especially PhDs) are more likely to get funded than your bachelor’s degree.
And btw, the way that you wrote this post shows that you know almost nothing about the university itself, but only apply because it is always featured in the XY university ranking. It is one of the best research institutions. Because the Swiss government puts tons (and tons) of money into it, to attract the world’s best minds. As it seems, professors can be bought too, provided the right research environment and enough funding. But this is not the kind of elite that corresponds to the Ivy League or Oxbridge. Those are highly selective, and thus their student bodies are already composed of many young, bright minds, who have done all the interesting extracurricular stuff. The hard part is getting in. By contrast, any Swiss student with the Swiss high school diploma (Matura) is, by law, able to enroll at ETH. Then, the grinding gets to them and they fail exams and the hard part is to graduate. It’s courses are also mostly limited to engineering, natural sciences and mathematics, and some other subjects like economics. Also, on the undergraduate level, not a very international university, since, as I said before, German is required.
PS: If you don’t know German and aren’t willing to put your education on hold for, let’s say 2 years to learn German, look elsewhere. Maybe do your master’s at ETH.
