Financial Support
Common Terms
Finances are an important factor in the decision to go to graduate school, and that navigating financial systems can prove challenging at times. Below, we have outlined common terms and definitions for the financial designations used by the Institute’s range of graduate programs.
Typically, a “fully-funded” program is expected to provide tuition funding and living stipends for all students in good standing. Financial support for graduate students in fully-funded or partially-funded programs may take the form of Research Assistantships, Teaching Assistantships, or fellowships. To be in good standing, you must be making progress toward your degree.
In the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Master of Science (SM), the Mechanical Engineer’s Degree and Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Science (PhD/ScD) are expected to be fully-funded programs.
Other degree programs may have limited funding available for graduate students. This could mean that the department provides partial tuition funding or a stipend to each student, that available funding opportunities are highly competitive, or that funding is allocated in another way not mentioned here. Financial support may be allocated based on academic achievement, demonstrated financial hardship, or any other mechanism that the department may use.
As with fully-funded programs, common forms of funding are Research Assistantships, Teaching Assistantships, and fellowships.
Typically, a “self-funded” program requires its graduate students to provide financial resources for tuition and living expenses. Students enrolling in self-funded programs might cover these costs through outside grants, tuition reimbursement from their company (if employed full-time), loans, or independent financial resources. Some of our more “professional” graduate programs, designed for mid-career individuals, may be self-funded.
The Master of Manufacturing in Engineering (MEng) and Naval Engineer’s Degree are self-funded programs.
For more detailed information regarding the cost of attendance, including specific costs for tuition and fees, books and supplies, housing and food as well as transportation, please visit the SFS website.
Types of Financial Aid Available
The Mechanical Engineering Department offers three types of financial assistance to graduate students as listed below. (Note, this information does not pertain to students in the MEng program. Financial information for this program is found here.)
A fellowship provides students with a direct grant, and leaves them open to select their own research project and supervisor. A number of students in the Department are supported by fellowships from outside agencies, and a few are available from MIT. However, the Department itself has relatively few fellowships to offer.
Current fellowship listings can be found here.
The majority of students in the MechE Department are supported by research assistantships, which are appointments to work on particular research projects with particular faculty members. The faculty members procure research grants for various projects, and hire graduate students to carry out the research. The research is almost invariably structured so that it becomes the student’s thesis. A fulltime RA appointment provides a full tuition scholarship (i.e. covers all tuition) plus a salary that is adequate for a single person. In return for a fully funded education, RAs are required to do a certain amount of work for the grant that funds them. In most cases, this work becomes the student’s thesis project. Consistent with this requirement, an RA may register for no more than 24 units of classroom work (typically two subjects) per regular term, and must do at least the equivalent of 24 units of thesis work (i.e. research on the project) per term. The summer term is usually spent on thesis work.
Teaching Assistantship (TA) Contact: an academic appointment in support of the teaching of a course, including grading responsibilities.
Teaching Assistantship (TA) Support: an academic appointment in support of the teaching of a course, which may include responsibilities such as office hours, guiding recitation, proctoring examinations, etc.
Teaching assistants are appointed to work on specific subjects of instruction. As the name implies, TAs usually assist a faculty member in teaching, often grading homework problems and tutoring students. In the Mechanical Engineering Department, TAs are seldom used for regular full-time classroom teaching, but typically provide support to faculty instructors, conduct review sessions, hold office hours, or lead lab sections, etc. depending on the subject. TAs are limited to 48 units of credit per regular term with a maximum of 24 units of classroom work and cannot register for the subject that they are teaching. A TA appointment usually does not extend through the summer. The Associate Department Head for Education (currently Rohit Karnik) oversees the TA allocation process. Information regarding TAs is communicated via email to Mechanical Engineering graduate students, typically toward the end of the fall semester for spring TAs, and in early summer for fall TAs.
Comparison
Experience has shown that the optimum graduate program consists of about equal measures of coursework and research, consistent with an RA appointment. One advantage of a fellowship is greater freedom in choosing a research project and supervisor. Another is that, unlike an RA, a fellowship student is not limited to two courses per term, and may therefore be able to finish a degree in a somewhat shorter time.
A teaching assistantship gives the student teaching experience and can also be extremely valuable for reviewing basic subject material: for example, in preparation for the doctoral general exams. It does not, however, leave much time for thesis research, and may extend the time that the student will need to complete a degree.
How to Get an RA or TA
Once a student is formally admitted to the Department, s/he is eligible for an assistantship. At this point it helps to understand how the funding of graduate research works in MIT’s Engineering School. The faculty write proposals for specific research, and when they receive funding, they hire graduate Research Assistants to do the research with/for them. The MechE Graduate Office distributes a list of admitted students to all MechE faculty members, noting each student’s interests, previous university affiliation, grade point average, etc. Many faculty select candidates from this list for the positions they have available. (See also the paragraph after next.) They make their final selections after reviewing the students’ application files. At that point, they contact a student, with a specific offer for a research assistantship. A particular student may get offers from several professors, in which case he/she has to make a choice about which one to accept.
The graduate research enterprise is thus somewhat like a free enterprise system, with the individual professors looking for the best students for their research projects and the students looking for the most interesting or satisfying research experience.
What can students who have just been accepted do to improve the chances in this process? The first step is to carefully read the research areas as listed on the MechE website. From these areas students can identify the faculty members they would like to work with, and should not hesitate to write, e-mail, or telephone them; they should not be shy about making the professors aware of any special qualifications that they (the students) might possess (previous research experience, etc.).
Students seeking research assistantships should be aware that many, if not most, commitments are made after April 15. Positions become available through the spring and summer, depending on when the research grants come in, and a significant fraction of new research assistantship offers are made after the beginning of the fall term. Most graduate students end up with funding by the end of their first term.
The Associate Department Head for Education (currently Rohit Karnik) oversees the TA allocation process. Information regarding TAs is communicated via email to Mechanical Engineering graduate students, typically toward the end of the fall semester for spring TAs, and in early summer for fall TAs.
Guaranteed Transitional Support
The Department offers guaranteed financial support to students who need to transition to a different advisor/group due to an unhealthy advising relationship. Students who wish to inquire about this program should get in contact with the Graduate Officer who is currently serving as the departmental Transitional Support Coordinator (TSC). More information about the program can be found at the Office of Graduate Education and in this document.
