A Primer for Potential Students
EECS Undergraduate programs
Published by
EECS Students
Revised July 2007
MIT Nondiscrimination Policy
Contents
- Introduction
- How to Get Information
- Admissions
- Financial Aid
- Now Introducing... EECS
- Additional Information
This publication was written by undergraduate students of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to answer some common questions often asked about the Department.
The official write-up on the Department is included in the MIT Bulletin. See How to Get Information (below).
We will tell you our perspectives about:
- How to become an Electrical Engineer or Computer Scientist;
- What Electrical Engineering & Computer Science is;
- What EECS majors do when they graduate; and
- A little about student academic life.
Most of this document is from the experiences of the students with some input from faculty and staff.
General information about MIT and the various fields of study can be obtained from the MIT Admissions Office, MIT Room 3-108, Cambridge, MA 02139, Phone: (617) 258-5515, admissions@mit.edu. Be sure to read the MIT Admissions Office website thoroughly before trying to contact them, as it's all there.
About Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Information about the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science can be found in this document, in The Brief Guide to EECS Degree Programs and in The Underground Guide to Course VI, (available to non-MITers on paper only) which is also published by students. It gives the students' version of the material in the MIT Bulletin plus other things we think are important for someone considering the department as a course of study. Its focus, however, is more directed towards freshmen already at MIT so some of it may be hard to relate to, but some of the information will supplement other publications. At the end of this document is a listing of email addresses and phone numbers to use to obtain more information.
Find out about tours of MITat the MIT Admissions Office. The MIT tour shows you the main features of the MIT campus, not departments or labs. Along with the tour they have a very useful information session where they answer questions about admissions, financial aid, and student life.
If you would like a tour of our Department's educational labs, have questions about EECS Undergraduate Programs that our material fails to address, or if you just want to drop by the Department during your campus visit, please arrange for an appointment, a few days beforehand, by emailing or calling Anne M. Hunter, anneh@mit.edu, or Vera Sayzew,, vera@mit.edu, at the Course VI Undergraduate Office. When their workload permits they or trained students will give tours of two EECS educational laboratories and tell you all about the department.
At certain times of the year, the Admissions Office also has a host program called "The Overnight Program" where you can come and stay with a student and go to classes. This is a very good way to see student life as well as get more detailed information on MIT and your areas of interest. Be sure to make arrangements way ahead of time.
- There is only one undergraduate application form that covers all of MIT. You do not apply to a particular school or department.
- There are no department entrance requirements for admitted MIT freshmen.
- Departments do not participate in admissions and they do NOT make specific recommendations to the Admissions Officers.
- Grades and college board scores are important but not the only criteria for admission. MIT has lots of applicants with high SAT's, and grades. Admissions seems to look for students who have taken full advantage of all academic opportunities, and created their own if they were lacking. They are definitely interested in students who have demonstrated character and leadership. No on-campus interview is available but almost everyone should have an interview with a member of the MIT Educational Council near their home. If you are really dedicated to getting into MIT, strongly consider applying Early Action.
- Where else should I apply? Top programs in EECS can be found at: Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and many other places.
The first step towards becoming an MIT undergraduate in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science is to gain admission to MIT. Download a freshman application from the MIT Admissions Office and follow the application procedure. Make sure you give those who are writing recommendations plenty of time to do so. Allot time to talk to someone from the MIT Educational Council. You can get the name of the person nearest you from the Admissions Office. You will have to write at least one essay; reserve time to do a good job. TRY NOT TO RUSH YOURSELF. The deadline is January 1 (November 1 for Early Action Applicants).
Once you're admitted to MIT as a freshman, you may choose any major program. See How To Major In EECS.
How Do I Improve My Chances of Getting Into MIT?
Outside of the interviewer from the MIT Educational Council, the Admissions staff and volunteer faculty readers, no one has direct input into specific admissions decisions. Therefore talking to department faculty or administration will NOT help you to gain admission. Some things you can do are to provide yourself with a strong background, do well in class and on tests, pursue your passions and carefully prepare your application materials. Your recommendation letters from teachers will be extremely helpful to you. Choose your supporters carefully. Anything you have done to broaden or deepen your academic background will help a lot. Be sure to document everything! Extra-curricular activities are a big plus. Applying to MIT is no different from applying to Ivy League schools.
A handful of students per year from other colleges and universities are admitted to EECS. These are chosen from around 100 transfer student applicants, so that it is extremely selective. It can be hard for transfer students to adjust to MIT, and most end up spending extra time here to finish. The EASIEST time to get into MIT is as a freshman. Planning to go somewhere cheap first and transfer into MIT in a year or two almost always backfires. And it's MUCH easier to get into MIT graduate programs as an MIT undergraduate than coming from outside (exception: Chemistry and Physics Departments). MIT accepts transfer credit for subjects taken at any accredited college. No determination of what transfer credit a particular student might receive is possible until after a student has been admitted to MIT. MIT is only moderately fair about granting transfer credit; but students can talk to faculty transfer credit examiners to maximize their credit once they have arrived.
MIT Costs and Financial Aid
or How Do I Get That Much Money?
MIT says that its undergraduate admissions are need-blind. This means that it does not look at your financial situation as a criterion for admission. If you get accepted to MIT, the Institute will see that you get the money you need to come. In reality, a few accepted students cannot make ends meet despite financial aid. This is not intended to scare you away. MIT tries reasonably hard to see that you can make it here. The amount of debt graduates have is pretty low compared to starting salaries.
Many students make up the difference by getting paying jobs on or near campus. You don't have to be on financial aid here to qualify for on-campus work: there are so many jobs that any student can hold any job. Paying jobs at MIT are not just the usual library and office assistant ones, but system and network administrator, webmaster, UROP (research jobs) and other jobs in MIT's offices and research labs. Most undergrads find they can work ten to twelve hours a week without compromising their academics. The Course VI Undergraduate Administrator, Anne Hunter, maintains a jobs email list to which UROPs and off campus jobs are posted daily. Other listings are available through the UROP Office and the Student Employment Office. MIT jobs pay from about $9.75 to $25.00 per hour, so that if you find you can work ten hours a week, you can make quite a little money, although nowhere near enough to "put yourself through college." Other forms of financial aid are grants, scholarships, and loans. Technical off-campus jobs start around $20 per hour and go up from there. MIT is surrounded by high-tech companies.
It is now time to talk about Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, because you wouldn't be reading this if you weren't interested in us. We start off with...
As we said before, no department has any requirements for admission other than the general MIT admissions requirements. All you have to do to major in EECS is to stay at MIT and sign the designation form as a freshman or talk to the Undergraduate Administrators in room 38-476 if you are not a freshman. Department subjects mostly draw upon knowledge taught in the freshman year. The instructors do not expect you to know any computer languages or machines, or have previous electronics experience. If you get into MIT, it means that you have the potential to succeed in EECS. The only limitation is your own initiative.
The New Curriculum
In the Spring of 2007 our Department announced new undergraduate programs in all three majors, involving some new introductory and foundational classes and a new structure. The class of 2010 may choose the new programs and the class of 2011 and thereafter must complete the new program.
All students in the Department take the same two introductory subjects, 6.01 and 6.02 so that E.E.'s understand software systems, and C.S.'s understand circuits and electronics. This also means that you can pretty easily change your mind between the EE, CS, and EECS majors until at least the end of your sophomore year, when you've had a chance to find out what you like. Our major programs are quite specific, with required subjects and lists of restricted electives. This means that EE students study the fundamental and theoretical aspects of EE rather than specializing right away in communications, optics, acoustics, devices, or electromagnetics, for example. CS students study theory and algorithms in many areas of Computer Science rather than specializing in artificial intelligence, computer systems, graphics, or databases, for example. Some flexibility is possible, however, by choosing advanced, specialized subjects in the senior year and more notably by choosing laboratories, UROP, electives, and the senior project in a student's particular area of interest.
Major and Minors
It is possible to obtain two bachelors degrees at MIT, but not to "double major" although the faculty are talking of changing that. Perhaps 15% of MIT students receive two bachelors degrees. It is also possible to minor in 45 fields in Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, Science and Engineering. (EECS does not offer any minor programs). Popular major combinations include E.E. and Physics, C.S. and Math, or Cognitive Science. Economics, Music and Management are common minors. The number of requirements and total credits increase with each degree, but minors don't require any extra credit. Any combination is possible. The only thing that can prevent you from doing this is your own ability to handle the course load. It is important to know your limits, but it can be fruitful to test them.
MEng: The Five Year Bachelors/Masters Program. We offer a combined five-year program, a Bachelors and Masters in EECS. Students with at least a B average, 4.25 on a 5.0 scale in the major, (that's about 60% of EECS undergraduates)will generally be admitted to the Masters of Engineering (M.Eng.) Program after the end of their third undergraduate year. Those students may complete an integrated program leading to the awarding of both the Bachelors and Masters degrees at the end of five years. This program is very popular with students: more than half of each class goes on to receive the M.Eng. degree.
Electrical Engineering at MIT is a very broad field. The curriculum is intensive and very theoretical. The emphasis on theory separates MIT from most schools. The Institute produces engineers who are capable of applying knowledge over a broad range of problems and creating rapid advances in technology. The ability to keep from falling behind is very important in today's high-tech industry. The program starts with basic circuit theory, and moves into systems, physics of electronic devices, and quantum mechanics. The math requirement includes probability theory and complex variable calculus.
Research in Electrical Engineering
Research here includes a variety of interesting topics. Some are:
- Power system engineering;
- High voltage research;
- Chip manufacturing and design techniques (VLSI);
- The modeling of the ear as an electrical system in order to study hearing for speech perception;
- Optics (lasers, fiber optics);
- Digital and analog electronics design;
- Image processing;
- Data, computer, and audio and video communication networks;
- Fusion related magnetic research;
- The relation of electrical engineering to biology and medical applications;
- Systems to control things electronically.
Graduates of Electrical Engineering get jobs in industry that apply this knowledge. They can be found in research laboratories, in both international corporations and start-up companies, as well as other places where their ability "to make electrons work" is needed. Many graduates continue on to get higher degrees. Others become lawyers, doctors or get advanced degrees in other fields. Many take financial jobs at hedge funds or large international financial companies.
Research in Computer Science (View CSAIL Research Activities)
Computer Science at MIT is a bit different from programs offered at most other universities. Many potential students really don't understand what it's all about here. It's NOT about "applications programming," or "data processing" or "web design". "Systems analyst" is not the sort of job to which our students aspire after they graduate (by sophomore year it's easy to get on-campus jobs keeping systems running). At MIT one starts out by learning about dealing with complexity, modelling and abstraction, and goes on to study computer architecture (how to design computer systems), artificial intelligence, modelling, and theory. There is quite a bit of advanced mathematics. Computer Science studies how to make computers faster, more efficient, and more intelligent. Graduates of Computer Science have the ability to perform a wide range of jobs. The breadth of their studies allows them to learn quickly the variety of languages and machines used in industry. The depth of study gives a better understanding of the problem and how to solve it. The curriculum is as intensive as electrical engineering. You can't get a big jump on the major by studying programming in high school. Our introductory CS subject is taught in PYTHON, and the software engineering lab uses a version of JAVA; C++ can also be useful in UROPs.
Research in Computer Science at MIT covers many topics. Here are a few:
- Robots design and control;
- Making machines hear, see, move, and learn;
- The use of intelligent machines as resources for making decisions;
- The use of computers in education;
- Using computers to design chips and other things;
- Making computers easier to use;
- Determining if a problem is solvable;
- Making better programming languages;
- Automating offices and other functions;
- Getting computers to talk to each other;
- Applied probability;
- Medical decisionmaking;
- Computer graphics.
Graduates in Computer Science get jobs developing systems for science, business, or fun. Some join large companies like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM; others join or start small start-up companies to be "in on the ground floor." Some design video games, others work on supercomputers or robots. You will find MIT Computer Science graduates behind the design and development of most computers on the market. Many graduates continue on to get advanced degrees, not only technical but also medical, legal, business, etc.
Unlike lots of other colleges, MIT does not require that its students buy a personal computer. There are lots of big, powerful computers here (many thousands of networked computers in all areas of the campus). Computer time for word processing and play is totally available. LINUX is the operating system of choice for many students. If you still want to purchase one, you should know that MIT has made arrangements for discounts for the entire MIT community with various companies. Don't worry too much about compatibility with MIT computers and software; make your best deal.
The VI-A M.Eng. Thesis Program
This is a very popular, prestigious combined bachelor/masters degree program. Students accepted to this program in their junior year may work two summers and the fall term of their fifth year at their VI-A company. During the summer and fall terms following their senior year, they develop and complete the masters thesis at the company. This program is competitive: about half the students who apply are accepted. You have to be selected by one of the companies participating in this program, and be qualifed for the M.Eng. program. The main advantages are the experience in the working world, which helps to tie the theory students learn at MIT into practical reality. The companies are excellent, including Analog Devices, Google, IBM, Qualcomm, TI, VMware and Xerox to name a few.
UROP: The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
This is an MIT-wide program that enables undergraduates to work with faculty and research staff on a current research topic, for either money OR credit. UROP is what makes MIT really great for undergraduates. Hundreds of students do UROPs every term and over the summer. Other schools have tried to copy UROP, but their scale is minute compared to MIT's UROP Program. The advantages of working on the cutting edge of technology and the contacts with brilliant, top researchers are priceless. Many students use topics from UROPs as background for Senior Projects. The added and reinforced knowledge is very helpful in your studies. Your faculty and staff contacts can be extremely useful later in life. Even freshmen can often find UROPs! A UROP project is obtained by contacting the faculty in person. You can learn all about the program from displays the week before classes start in the fall. You can also ask upperclassmen. Almost all have participated in this excellent program.
Research Labs and Centers: There are many research laboratories and centers closely associated with the EECS Department, where EECS professors and research staff (including UROP students) do research. There are also many interdepartmental labs where EECS faculty aren't much involved, but where EECS students find lots of opportunities for UROPs and special projects. These include the Center for Biological and Computational Learning, the Center for Coordination Science, the Lab for Manufacturing and Productivity, Lincoln Lab, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), the Energy Lab, the Plasma Fusion Center, the Operations Research Center, Sea Grant and Space Grant, and the Technology and Public Policy Program.
Lastly, there is the Media Lab, a.k.a. the Media, Arts and Sciences Program, which takes a little explaining. Computer graphics developed at MIT in the Department of Architecture. Graphics and other computer applications have been added to media like film, photography and music to form a laboratory and program that address "the quality of the information environment." They not only do research but also teach undergraduate and graduate subjects in areas like perceptual computing, learning and common sense, and information and entertainment. While they don't have an undergraduate major program, they do offer both the masters and the Ph.D. degrees. Many EECS students do research in the Media Lab.
EECS is the largest department at MIT with roughly one quarter of all the students. Our largest major is EECS followed by CS, then EE. Classes are large on the average, ranging from 125 to 200 for the basic subjects, down to perhaps 20 in some of the smaller laboratory subjects. Typical class structure is two lectures per week and two smaller faculty-taught recitations (with 25-30 students). The beginning subjects have optional tutorials, where five or six students meet for an hour with a graduate teaching assistant. Each subject takes up about 12 hours per week. Many computer facilities are open 24 hours a day. Most hardware laboratory subjects have lab kits that can be worked on in the students' rooms. Faculty and staff are usually eager to help you outside of class. Sometimes they are hard to catch as they are very busy. With 700 undergraduates and 700 graduate students, the Department cannot boast of an individual, personal approach to education. However, the faculty here, busy as they are, really care about undergraduate education. If the students make an effort, they are very helpful.
EECS has several active student organizations, including ACM/IEEE, which puts on faculty/student dinners and social hours, and Eta Kappa Nu, our honor society, which produces the Underground Guide to Course VI Classes and the VI-A Underground Guide, and performs many other service projects.
MIT subjects are very demanding and take a lot of time. The quality of students is very high and sets MIT apart. Once you are here everybody works hard to see that you stay here. MIT "requires the withdrawal" for academic reasons of far less than one percent of the undergraduates each term, and many of those are later reinstated and eventually graduate. Almost none of those few students who have academic problems lack ability: their problems involve lack of discipline, motivation, and maturity or medical and personal problems, even though MIT has lots of support systems, starting right in the Department. Studying in Course VI at MIT is lots of work, even for the absolutely brilliant.
International Study and Research
MIT is a university with a strong international focus.
1. MISTI: This amazing program provides opportunities for many Course VI students to work at technical companies, do research at universities and research institutes, or teach at schools in ten countries for a term, a summer, six months or a year. The Department encourages students to participate in MISTI.
2. Study Abroad: The Department also encourages undergraduates to consider spending their junior year at the University of Cambridge's Engineering Department through the Cambridge MIT Exchange Program. Exchange programs with the University of Madrid, the National Taiwan Universities, the Canadian universities and other are also available.
3. International Development Initiative: Course VI students travel to developing countries to perform service projects developed here at MIT, changing the world one village at a time.
4. The new VI-A International M.Eng. Program allows students to do internships and their M.Eng. thesis at companies worldwide.
MIT also has the top Ph.D. program in EECS. While quite a few MIT EECS undergraduates continue at MIT for the Ph.D., so many EECS undergrads want to continue here that it still requires great research and very high grades to get in. The M.Eng. program does give MIT students more chance to demonstrate their research abilities before entering the Ph.D. program. We estimate that more than 90% of our undergraduates go on somewhere for graduate study (often part time at their employer's expense) in order to do more interesting things. With graduate Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistantships available, very few full-time doctoral students pay for study in EECS. Probably at least a quarter of EECS undergraduates eventually receive a Ph.D. from some university. MIT-trained faculty work at universities around the world.
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT is one of the greatest programs of its kind in the world. Its graduates are known for their ability to solve problems and do research. The department offers some of the best opportunities for becoming a highly qualified engineer or researcher. One important factor is that our subjects in the department have faculty instructors. Recitations are also faculty taught. A tremendous amount of information is transferred in four intensive years. The very high quality of all the MIT undergraduates makes this an amazing place to go to school. The UROP Program provides students with research experiences that make them attractive to industry and graduate schools. MIT graduates are in very high demand from industry; hundreds of companies come to MIT to recruit graduating seniors for positions. Starting salaries for students with bachelors degrees are averaging above $60,000; M.Eng grads salaries are averaging above $70,000. Although the price is high, most graduates feel that it was worth it.
If you still have questions, you may be able to get answers at some of these places: MIT, Admissions, EECS Undergraduate Programs.
- EECS-related questions:
Anne M. Hunter, Administrator anneh@mit.edu- EECS Undergraduate Office
- MIT Room 38-476
- Cambridge, MA 02139
- (617)253-4654
Vera Sayzew, Co-Administrator vera@mit.edu- EECS Undergraduate Office
- MIT Room 38-476
- Cambridge, MA 02139
- (617)452-3183
- EECS Undergraduate Office
- Financial Aid:
- Student Financial Services
- MIT Room 11-120
- (617)253-4971
- MIT Room 11-120
- Admissions:
- Admissions Office
- MIT Room 3-108
- (617)258-5515
- admissions@mit.edu
- MIT Room 3-108
-
Undergraduate Program
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