Prospective Students
Key Dates
- The application website will open on September 15.
- Deadline for Early Admission for MIT MechE Seniors: November 1
- Deadline for Application for Admission: December 15
- Decisions are released on approximately February 15.
Applying to the MechE Graduate Program
Applications to the Mechanical Engineering (MechE) Graduate Program are accepted from persons who have completed, or will have completed by the time they arrive, a Bachelor’s degree. Most incoming students will have a degree in mechanical engineering or ocean engineering. However, the Department’s admission criteria are not specific in this regard, and talented students with backgrounds in other branches of engineering or in science may gain entry.
To qualify for a graduate degree, applicants are expected to have at least an undergraduate-level exposure to most of the core MechE disciplines (solid mechanics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, materials, control, design and manufacturing), and to be familiar with basic electric circuits and electromagnetic field theory. Those who are deemed deficient may be asked to make up courses in certain areas before they graduate. The make-up courses may be at the undergraduate-level (in which case they are relatively elementary and usually cannot be applied toward graduate credit), or at the graduate-level (in which case they carry graduate credit).
Complete information on graduate admissions can be found on the Mechanical Engineering Departmental website and at the Office of Graduate Education.
Information on the Graduate Application Assistance Program (GAAP), a student-run, volunteer-based program that assists MechE PhD applicants from underrepresented groups and non-traditional academic backgrounds, can be found here.
Key Points
- The method to apply to the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program is via our online system.
- The processing of applications for graduate study is done entirely by the Department. The MechE Graduate Admissions Officer, together with a faculty committee, reviews all applications, rank-orders them, and admits the number of applicants that the Department expects it can accommodate.
- Foreign nationals applying from abroad may be admitted, but are not permitted to register at MIT unless they have full financial support for at least the first year. This can come in the form of a research or teaching assistantship from an individual MIT professor (see Financial Support for more information ), though for many foreign students this support comes from their family, their government, or an international fellowship.
- The department of Mechanical Engineering will not require GRE tests for applications for graduate admission for 2025. As a result, GRE scores will not be used for evaluating candidates for admission in the 2025 application process.
- Students from non-English-speaking countries are also required to take the IELTS (preferred) or the TOEFL exam. Students whose citizenship is from India are exempt from taking the IELTS or TOEFL exam. The minimum acceptable score for the IELTS exam is 7.0, and for the TOEFL exam, it is 100 (ibt), or 577 (pbt). Note, we accept the Academic IELTS only (not General Training).
- We will accept the TOEFL Home Edition as long as the result is officially sent to us from TOEFL directly.
- All official transcripts must be submitted directly to the MechE Graduate Office, Room 1-112, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 but only after the student has been admitted. All electronic transcripts should be submitted to megradoffice@mit.edu.
- Applications are due by December 15 of the previous year and decisions are reported in March.
A Completed Application
A completed application consists of:
- The completed application form
- Statement of Objectives
- Minimum of three letters of recommendation
- Uploaded official/unofficial copies of transcripts. We will require official transcripts upon admission.
- GRE Not Required except for applicants to the 2N program (Naval Construction and Engineering). Please refer to the 2N Website and faculty for admissions details as this program may have additional requirements.
- IELTS (preferred) or TOEFL for international students whose native language is not English. Note, we accept the Academic IELTS only (not General Training). Minimum acceptable score for IELTS = 7.0; TOEFL = 100 IBT, 577 PBT. Please ask British Council to send us the official IELTS score or ETS to send us the official TOEFL score (Inst. code 3514 and Dept. code 68). The IELTS/TOEFL will be waived for any student graduating from a US school.
Early Admission for MIT MechE Seniors
The intent of the Early Admission program is to allow seniors with a high GPA, and who are ahead of the eight term graduation schedule, to spend time in the Spring Term of the senior year to make a start on their graduate work. This year we encourage applications from seniors with a GPA of 4.8 and above. An important part of the application will be a statement of how you intend to use the Spring Term in preparation for Graduate School. All applications should include a separate statement (this can be a paragraph or two at the end of your statement of objectives) that outlines how you will spend the Spring Term, including:
- The remaining undergraduate commitments that you will need to satisfy during the Spring Term.
- How you will use the Spring Term to make a start on your Graduate work, either in terms of taking graduate classes and/or by working with a faculty member on a potential thesis project. It would be very helpful if you are able to identify a faculty member who has agreed to work with you.
The application website will open on September 15. GRE scores not required for the 2024 admissions period. The deadline for submitting your application for Early Admission is November 1, with decisions made by December 1. When requesting letters of recommendation, please let the letter writer know that the deadline is November 1. All applications for Early Admission that are not accepted will be automatically entered into the regular admission process, unless explicitly withdrawn by you. Applicants to the MIT MechE graduate program should apply using the MechE online admissions site.
Admission into the Doctoral Program
Students from outside MIT may apply to the doctoral program if they will have completed a master’s degree in engineering by the time they enroll for the PhD.
Students who are in the MechE Department’s SM program, and wish to continue for a PhD, will automatically be enrolled in the doctoral program effective the day on which they submit their master’s thesis provided they have maintained a cumulative GPA of 4.5 or better in graduate-level subjects at MIT.
All students must take and pass the doctoral qualifying examinations. A student is considered to be a (qualified) candidate in the doctoral program upon passing the qualifying examinations.
