Petitions

A petition is a request to make changes to your academic record that are either non-standard actions or are outside of stated deadlines.  Graduate student petitions are evaluated and approved by the graduate administrator or graduate officer in the student’s home department, the instructor of a subject (if appropriate for the particular request), and the OGE. The Office of Graduate Education acts with authority on behalf of the Committee on Graduate Programs with regard to all petition requests.

Please note that it may take 7 to 10 business days to review and process a petition once received by OGE. To check on the status of a petition that has already been submitted, please log into DocuSign.

Add/Drop/Change petitions

Submit an online Add/Drop/Change petition to make a late Add, Drop, or Change of Grading Status in their academic record after a deadline has passed. A processing fee of $25 will be charged to your student account for each petition approved. 

To learn more about the online Graduate Late Drop/Add/Change of Grading Status petition, see the following resources in the Help section of the graduate online petition application:

General petitions

Submit a General Petition Form in DocuSign to:

  • Register after the term deadline (incurs a $100 late fee) Please include a list of classes and credits for each that you wish to register for.
  • Choose a thesis field not currently on the list of departmental thesis fields
  • Request a joint Master’s thesis
    (Attach a statement specifying division of labor)
  • Change a grade of “O” (missing final exam/project) to “OX” (excused)
  • Appoint an ad hoc interdisciplinary degree thesis committee
  • Request approval for retroactive actions in unusual circumstances
  • Request graduate credit for an undergraduate class. Must be submitted before the class starts or within the first 2 weeks of class. Requires instructor comments of extra work to be done to earn graduate level credit. Requires instructor signature.
  • Graduate departments may use a general petition to request individual special tuition rates in unusual circumstances.

Dual Master’s degree petition

To establish or amend a dual Master’s degree: Read the description, and submit the petition through DocuSign. (Attach list of subjects and credit units for each degree: see an example).

Special changes to student status

Submit a special petition to oge-petitions@mit.edu to change your student status:

Do NOT use a petition to:

More information for departments

Please find additional information for departments in this OGE & Registrar’s Office Cheat Sheet.