Zentral, also praktisch und teuer. Oerlikon und Altstetten sind die üblichen Kompromisse.
WOKO verwaltet die meisten subventionierten Zimmer, und die Liste ist lang. Der private Markt läuft auf Deutsch, und ein englisches Dossier wird langsamer gelesen als ein deutsches — was auf einem so schnellen Markt dasselbe ist wie: gar nicht gelesen.
Apply to WOKO the day you are admitted — the list runs 4 to 9 months, so it rarely helps for your first semester, but it costs nothing and it helps for your second. Everything else means the private market.
File your residence permit dossier about three months before you arrive; processing runs eight to twelve weeks and nothing downstream starts until it is in. Register at your commune within fourteen days of landing, and sort health insurance within three months. The full timeline.
Campus is at Zentrum and Irchel. Choose your neighbourhood by commute rather than by postcode — a cheaper room forty minutes away costs you two hours a day for a year.
Most UZH applicants get stuck on the same thing: an agency that wants someone resident in Switzerland to co-sign. We do that, for 3 months' rent — after we have read your file, and we do decline some.