(Revised July 2008)

1. What is the MEng Program?

The EECS Masters of Engineering Program is a five-year, combined, simultaneous bachelors/masters program in EECS. Think of it as a four-year bachelor's and two-year master's condensed into five or five and a half years. Only Course VI MIT undergraduates are eligible to apply. Non-Course VI and non-MIT students must apply to our regular graduate program.

Students must receive the EECS bachelor's degree before or with the master's degree. Students enrolled in any of the three Course VI undergraduate degrees (6-1, 6-2, or 6-3) are eligible. All of the department's graduate degrees carry the name of the department, EECS, rather than having two or 20 different flavors. You can choose to receive the bachelor's first, but you must finish all the bachelor's requirements to get it. If you choose to obtain the degrees simultaneously, you may integrate the requirements. It is very important to start graduate classes, and especially the master's thesis, early in the senior year. Not doing so may delay completion of the master's into a sixth year.

2. How do you get admitted to MEng?

To apply, Juniors complete and submit the checklist for the old curriculum or the new, (also available in 38-476) indicating the semesters in which you took your classes and what grades you received in each of them. You may include the classes you are currently registered for even though you won't be able to enter the grade; our office will be able to obtain this information when grades are submitted. Do not enter any classes you plan to take in the future. Don't worry about filling in units or EDPs. The checklist is due for juniors on May 1st , and you will receive a response from us by the end of June. Most important are your grades in Course VI classes and the required math classes. You need to have a solid technical (Courses 6, 8 and 18) GPA of at least 4.25 to be admitted at the end of your junior year; and you must have at least a 4.0 overall in the term you apply. Students whose GPA falls between a 3.9 or so and a 4.2 will be put ‘on hold' for another term of grades and reviewed again the following January. A few students may even be kept on hold until the next June.

For students who are a term out of sync in either direction, or who decide they may be interested in entering the M.Eng.program early, there is a December 1st deadline, with responses by the end of January.

Admission is 99% by technical GPA, because it is not like the normal competitive admissions process, where there are a fixed or limited number of slots. In theory, if every junior who applied had at least a 4.3 GPA, every single one would be admitted in June. The Department WANTS to admit everybody who will be able to complete the MEng at an acceptable (A/B) level. But we cannot take chances on students who may not be able to do so, because we would then be in the regrettable position of forcing them to leave the master's program half-way through. We have actually had to do forced withdrawals of MEng students who consistently get C's or worse in graduate classes or fail to make progress on the thesis.

A letter of recommendation (usually from a research supervisor) is only helpful when a student is already very close to the required GPA. A steeply rising GPA, and a single very bad term (usually early on for a good reason) may also be taken into consideration. None of these circumstances are considered at the end of the junior year, but only later, for students who have been put ‘on hold'.

Once you are admitted, you may choose when to become a grad student. You are only eligible for grad support for your first three regular terms in the graduate program, or four under certain circumstances, but never more than four. You don't have to tell us whether or not you are going to do the MEng until April 15th of the senior year. You may defer the MEng program (receive the bachelor's and leave to go to work, for example) for up to two years.

3. How does financial support for the graduate year work?

Bad news: There are NO undergraduate-style, need-based grants. M.Eng. graduate fellowships are quite rare.

Good news: There are half-time jobs called research assistantships (RAs) and teaching assistantships (TAs). Both can be difficult to get, and are not at all guaranteed. They each pay approximately $2,000/month in salary plus full tuition and health insurance. Regular graduate assistantships require the student to work around 24 to 30 hours per week. You may only take two regular classes, plus you receive 24 units of credit for teaching or research/thesis, so you are almost always registered for 48 units per term.

Of approximately 150 MEng students last term, there were 35 TAships and 80 RAships, with the rest having no apparent support. Half-time RAships or TAships are sometimes possible, but rare; and they pay half the monthly stipend, half the tuition, require half the hours, and allow you to take three classes. Another possibility is to obtain loans through Student Financial Services.

What does the M.Eng. cost?

Graduate students MUST be full-time . The MEng is NOT a part-time program. It should be completed BEFORE you start any other degree program. All regular graduate students pay full tuition even if they're registered for one unit, except in the summer when there is no charge for thesis/research units for students who were registered in the spring term or will be registered in the fall term. You MUST be classified as a grad student for at least one regular term (not summer, not IAP) to receive a master's degree. If you plan to complete your bachelor's/master's degrees simultaneously so that you become a grad student before completing the bachelor's, you then are BOTH a grad and undergrad student.

4. What are the M.Eng. Requirements?

The M.Eng. requirements are being reconsidered by the Department, and new more flexible degree requirements may be announced by the end of the 2008-2009 Academic Year, to take effect for those in the new undergraduate curriculum.

The Current Requirements :

You need four more EC electives in a 3-2-2-2X pattern, plus two more advanced math classes, and a graduate thesis. This makes six classes, plus the thesis. Four of these must be full grad-H classes (H is serious grad level work; 95% of our grad classes are H), three of which must be in Course VI. Usually students fit in at least two of these six classes while undergraduates so that they only have four left for the grad year, plus they find and start their thesis projects as a UROP or UAP while a senior. RAs usually work summers on thesis rather than leaving to work at a company.

M.Eng Thesis

Thesis projects can be in any scientific or technological area, not just in EECS. Thesis supervisors may be any appropriate professor at MIT, and, very often, may be a research staff person associated with the department. Students frequently do thesis projects in the Media Lab, Whitehead Institute, Sloan, and Draper and Lincoln Laboratories. Though a thesis project requires just 24 units, it should be thought of as more like 100. Also, it is a project requiring duration, viewed as usually taking a minimum of nine months, not just a total number of hours. We urge you to find a project you are fascinated by and which will further your career and not settle for one just to get support.

5. Doctoral Admission

You may apply for the doctoral program during your senior year or during your graduate year. Even if you are admitted to the doctoral program in your senior year, you will do the MEng program, not the Master of Science, before entering the doctoral program. Applying during the senior year and gaining admission to the doctoral program will increase your likelihood of getting an RA or TA-ship. If you are not admitted then, you may reapply without prejudice in your grad year.

Anne Hunter
July 2008

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