Laptop, software, and setup: the tech checklist for incoming AELO Swiss Academy students

Every autumn, a new group of students lands in Switzerland with two suitcases, a healthy dose of nerves, and one question that keeps resurfacing in the weeks before arrival: is my tech actually ready? The emails start early. Should I buy a new laptop or bring my old one? Which plug adapter do I need? Do I have to buy Microsoft Office, or is it included? Can I survive without a printer in my room?

Having watched several cohorts settle in, I can tell you the answers are less dramatic than the anxiety suggests. Most students arrive over-prepared in some areas and under-prepared in exactly one. The goal of this checklist is to move that one gap to zero before you fly, so your first week at AELO Swiss Academy is spent meeting people rather than troubleshooting a laptop in a language you are still getting comfortable with.

One honest caveat before we start: your programme's welcome pack is the final word on anything specific, especially if your studies involve design software, statistical tools, or anything your instructors will ask you to install. What follows covers the ninety percent that applies to nearly everyone.

Start with the honest question: new laptop or the one you have?

There is a strange belief among incoming students that arriving with an older laptop is somehow embarrassing. It is not, and spending money you will later wish you had kept for travel or ski passes is a poor trade. Run a simple test. If your current machine is less than five years old, boots in under a minute, holds a four-hour charge, and runs your everyday apps without the fans screaming, it will almost certainly carry you through your studies.

I remember one student who arrived with a brand new sixteen-inch gaming laptop because it seemed impressive. It weighed nearly three kilos, lasted three hours on battery, and the hinge cracked by November after months of being wedged into an overloaded backpack. A lighter machine plus a good bag would have served her better and cost less.

Replace your laptop only if it genuinely fails the test: a swollen battery, less than 128 GB of storage, an operating system it can no longer update, or constant overheating. If that is the case, buy before you fly, not after, so you can set everything up calmly at home.

The specs that actually matter

Laptop marketing loves processor names and screen buzzwords, but two numbers decide whether a machine feels pleasant or painful by your second year: RAM and storage. If you are buying new or nearly new, this is the short version:

16 GB of RAM. Eight works, but browsers plus video calls plus spreadsheets will make it feel tight sooner than you expect.
A 512 GB SSD. Two hundred fifty-six fills up fast once course files, photos, and a few films for the train ride pile up.
A processor from the last three or four years. Any current mid-range chip is fine for study work.
A battery that genuinely holds a full day, because outlets in classrooms are never where you want them.
At least one USB-C port for charging, and either HDMI or a small adapter hub for projectors.

On the Mac versus Windows question, both are perfectly fine, and neither will hold you back. The one habit worth building: open your programme's equipment notes and check whether any course names specific software. A few creative and technical courses do, and it is much nicer to learn that now than in week three.

Buy at home or once you land?

Switzerland has excellent electronics retail, but it is not cheap. Digitec Galaxus is the big online retailer, and Interdiscount, MediaMarkt, and Fust have stores in most cities. If you buy at home, look for education pricing first. Apple and several major manufacturers offer student discounts, usually around ten percent, and verification takes minutes. That saving on a laptop often covers your adapters, a case, and a decent mouse with change left over.

Here is how the common purchases shake out:

| Item | Our take | Why |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Laptop | Buy at home | Education discounts, familiar keyboard layout, and you want it set up before travel |

| Plug adapters | Either | Around CHF 10 to 20 at any Swiss supermarket or electronics shop |

| External SSD | Buy at home | Cheaper online, and you want backups running from day one |

| Power strip | Buy in Switzerland | Local plugs, flight training safe for 230 V wiring, roughly CHF 20 to 40 |

| Printer | Skip it | Campus printing costs less than ink you will rarely use |

A note on second-hand: tutti.ch and Ricardo are the local marketplaces, and deals can be genuinely good. If you go that route, meet in person, check the battery health report, confirm the serial number matches the invoice, and walk away from anything sold without its charger. And whichever laptop you choose, keep the purchase receipt as a PDF in your cloud storage. Warranty claims without proof of purchase are a special kind of misery.

Software: what you need, what you don't

Before you pay for anything, log into your student account once it is activated. Many Swiss schools, including those in the AELO Swiss Academy network, provide licensed software through their IT portal, and Microsoft 365 is commonly included at no cost for enrolled students. Check before you buy a subscription you did not https://www.reddit.com/r/flyingeurope/comments/1nnhrnv/anyone_from_aelo_swiss_any_advices/ need.

Beyond that, your genuine everyday stack is small: a browser, an office suite, a note app you will actually use, and whatever video tool your classes run on. If you want capable free options, LibreOffice handles documents, DaVinci Resolve covers video editing, GIMP does image work, Audacity records audio, and Zotero manages references. These are not compromise tools; plenty of professionals use them daily.

Two things to avoid. First, pirated software. Beyond the obvious legal and ethical problems, cracked installers are a common malware route, and a compromised laptop during exam season is a catastrophe you can fully prevent. Second, paid antivirus suites. The protection built into Windows and macOS is genuinely good now, and security companies have a financial interest in making you doubt that.

One practical item people forget: check that your app store region and payment method will work from Switzerland. If your subscriptions are tied to your home country's store, that is usually fine, but confirm your card does not block foreign transactions.

Swiss specifics: plugs, keyboards, and printing

Switzerland uses the Type J socket, the three-pin kind with a hexagonal arrangement. Here is the detail that trips people up: slim two-pin Europlugs fit Swiss sockets perfectly, but chunky Schuko plugs with the side earth clips do not. So look at your chargers. If they are two-pin European, you are fine. If they are UK, US, or Australian, bring two or three adapters, one for your room, one for your bag. Voltage is 230 V, and virtually every laptop charger is rated 100 to 240 V, so no converter is needed.

Keyboard layouts are the quiet surprise. Swiss machines come with a QWERTZ layout, while laptops bought in North America or much of Asia use QWERTY. If you bring a QWERTY machine, you can absolutely write French and German on it using keyboard shortcuts, and most international students adapt within a week. If the accents matter a lot to you, a CHF 30 external keyboard solves it completely.

On printing: do not buy a printer for a dorm room. Ink dries when you rarely print, the machines eat desk space, and campus print stations with prepaid credits are cheaper and more reliable. Learn the printing system in week one, before you need it in week ten, and always bring documents as PDFs.

Internet, phones, and the VPN question

Student housing Wi-Fi is generally solid, though it varies by building. If your room has an Ethernet port, a CHF 10 cable is the cheapest internet upgrade in existence. If you plan to video-call home in the evenings, ask older students which hours the network gets congested, because it always does somewhere.

For mobile, prepaid SIM cards from Swisscom, Sunrise, or Salt are available at the airport, kiosks, and phone shops, and eSIM plans can be arranged before you even fly. Compare data allowances rather than headline prices, because the spread is wide.

As for VPNs, use the one your academy provides if it offers one, particularly on public networks. Skip the no-name free VPNs from app store ads; you are paying for that service with your data. A VPN can also be handy for accessing your home bank's website if it blocks foreign logins, which is a common annoyance.

Backups, passwords, and other unglamorous lifesavers

This is the section nobody reads until they lose something, so I will keep it short and firm. Set up a backup system before you travel: one automatic copy to the cloud and one to an external SSD. A one-terabyte drive costs around CHF 70 to 120, which is the cheapest insurance policy you will ever buy. Both macOS and Windows have built-in backup tools; turn one on and let it run. Then, once, actually test that you can restore a file. A backup you have never tested is a hope, not a system.

For passwords, use a password manager. Bitwarden is free and excellent. Move two-factor authentication off SMS codes and onto an authenticator app before you leave, because your home SIM may sit unused in a drawer for months, and getting locked out of your own accounts from another continent is no fun at all. Print your recovery codes and keep the paper somewhere safe.

Finally, enable Find My or Find My Device now, while you are sitting at home and can actually test it. Put a small label with your email on the underside of your laptop, and photograph the serial numbers alongside the receipts. It takes ten minutes and pays for itself the first time something goes missing in a shared kitchen.

Five things to sort before you fly

Most of this checklist can wait until you settle in, but a short list genuinely cannot. Do these in the week before departure, at home, with good Wi-Fi and no jet lag:

Run a full backup and copy it to your external drive as well.
Enable Find My or Find My Device, then confirm it actually locates your laptop.
Move two-factor codes to an authenticator app and print the recovery codes.
Scan your passport, permit or visa documents, and insurance papers into cloud storage.
Pack two plug adapters and your original chargers, never just the chargers you hope to buy later.

The whole thing takes about half an hour. Students who skip it are the ones sending frantic messages from airport lounges, and you do not want to be that person.

Your first week: a simple setup routine

Once you arrive, resist the urge to configure everything at once. Day one, connect to the campus network and activate your student email, since nearly everything else depends on it. Day two, create one folder structure for your studies and sync it to the cloud, set your calendar to show both your home and Swiss time zones, and top up your printing credits. Day three, set up a shared folder with your study group, because