All the good ideas are gone!
The MIT Biological Engineering (BE) interview weekend began with an introduction by the department’s chair. She gave a very motivating speech that ended with “this is the best time to become a bioengineer: find a problem and run with it.” I felt very motivated by the department chair’s speech and spent the next five months […]
Second time’s the charm
I remember driving down Massachusetts Avenue with my mom when I was 16. We were in New England on a family vacation, so she arranged a campus visit at MIT for me since I was trying to decide which colleges I should apply to. It was a beautiful July day. We had a meeting with […]
Born in the USA!
Well, the truth is, that’s all I was: just born in the USA. I’d never set foot on US soil since moving away at the young age of 3 months, when my family’s work relocation period ended and they moved back to France. Later, I would find myself growing up in Israel for the greater […]
The right roomie for you
My freshman year of college, I lived in a dorm with five other girls and one bathroom. It could have been a disaster, but by a stroke of luck we lived together incredibly well. Not everyone had such a fortunate random draw—one friend from down the hall still talks about the “mold farm” her roommate […]
Master’s Degrees
The master’s degree generally requires a minimum of one academic year of study. Admission to MIT for the master’s degree does not necessarily imply an automatic commitment by MIT beyond that level of study. In the School of Engineering, students may be awarded the engineer’s degree. This degree program requires two years of study and […]
Doctoral Degrees
A doctoral degree requires the satisfactory completion of an approved program of advanced study and original research of high quality. Please note that the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Doctor of Science (ScD) degrees are awarded interchangeably by all departments in the School of Engineering and the School of Science, except in the fields of […]
Fields of Study
Most universities have defined “graduate schools” or “graduate colleges”; however, MIT is different in that all of our schools offer graduate programs. There are five schools and one college at MIT: Architecture and Planning; Engineering; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; Management; Science; and the Schwarzman College of Computing. Each of these five schools oversees several […]
Additional considerations and information
Making MIT your home: On-campus housing options Choosing where to live is a big decision and the team at MIT Housing & Residential Services (HRS) is ready to help you explore your housing options. Graduate housing at MIT offers a variety of on-campus options at different price points for both single students and students with families: On-campus […]
Estimated living expenses for 12 months
MIT wants to give applicants a realistic assessment of the costs associated with a graduate education. Living costs in the Cambridge and Greater Boston area are among the highest in the United States. The Institute cannot assume financial responsibility for its students beyond any funding offered at the time of admission. Students are encouraged to […]
Salary and stipend rates
MIT strives to offer salaries and stipends that enable students to live and pursue their education in Cambridge and the Greater Boston area. The base salary rates (RA/TA/IG appointments) are established by the collective bargaining agreement (cba) between MIT and the MIT Graduate Student Union. These rates only serve as a guideline to base salary […]
Cost of Attendance
The cost of attendance for graduate students enrolled in degree or special programs of study at MIT consists of both direct costs and estimated living expenses. Like other major cities across the US, the cost of living in Cambridge and the Greater Boston area is high, and it is important to anticipate indirect costs. Living […]
Costs & funding
Many academic departments provide financial support for graduate students, and funding can vary significantly among disciplines. Whether a student receives funding, how much, and what form that financial support takes depends on the degree program to which they apply. These policies and practices will vary from program to program. Applicants are considered for appointments or […]
Certificate & Online Programs
MIT’s commitment to education extends beyond the classroom and includes opportunities to learn online or pursue advanced certificates. As the world of online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to grow, MIT has provided more opportunities to reach individuals across the world through online platforms. There has also been incredible growth in the […]
Exchange, Special, & Visiting Students
MIT has several different student statuses. Regular graduate students are enrolled in a degree-granting program and must meet a specific set of requirements in order to graduate. Non-degree students may be divided into several different student statuses based on the nature of their study or visit to MIT. These statuses are broken down below. Exchange […]
Degree programs
MIT offers a wide range of degrees and programs. All graduate students, whether or not they are participating in an interdepartmental program, must have a primary affiliation with and be registered in a single department. Every applicant accepted by MIT is admitted through one of the graduate departments. MIT has a number of established interdepartmental […]
International Applicants
The application and admission process for international applicants is the same as for domestic applicants, except for a language requirement. All departments at MIT require a comprehensive knowledge of the English language. However, each department has its own language requirements and policies. The immigration process itself is addressed by MIT’s International Students Office (ISO) after […]
Application Fee Waiver
UPDATE: The deadlines for application fee waiver requests have changed. Please review the new deadline information below. Due to the high volume of fee waiver requests, the Office of Graduate Education is extending our fee waiver deadline slightly to accommodate more applicant requests. Please read the fee waiver deadlines below carefully. Graduate program application deadlines […]
Standardized tests
Standardized tests play an important role in the application process. Although applications are reviewed as a whole, the most competitive applicants often attain high test scores on required examinations. Each graduate program has their own policies and requirements regarding standardized tests, however. Please review the specific requirements for the program that interests you in our […]
Summer research programs
MIT offers a variety of summer research opportunities for current undergraduate students interested in enhancing their education and developing their research skills to become competitive graduate applicants. Below is a selection of programs and research opportunities geared toward undergraduate students. For non-MIT programs, please visit PathwaysToScience.org for a searchable database of 650+ summer research programs in all STEM […]
Prospective student programs
Fall Preview Weekend Programs MIT offers dedicated preview weekends for prospective applicants interested in graduate school. Programs offer exposure to the MIT campus and opportunities to interact with graduate students, staff, and faculty. Preview weekend programs require an application and acceptance in order to attend. MIT ACCESS Program ACCESS is a weekend of educational and […]
Routine in chaos
About a month into my first semester at MIT, I found myself sitting on my couch at 4pm, still in my pajamas I’d been wearing all day, working on a math Problem Set (PSET), with a bag of pretzels as my only meal of the day beside me when I thought: What the heck am […]
PhD parenting in a pandemic
When I first heard about SARS-CoV-2, my wife and I had just flown back to the U.S. from visiting her family in China. She was already in her second trimester of pregnancy and was concerned that the virus might spread to North America. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it. Evidently, her […]
Experimenting with love
As far as bad dates went, this one was catastrophic. My date (we’ll call him “Brad”) was drunk, not just on his own ego, but also quite literally drunk. Though really, this was not my fault, as he had decided to come that way. As the waitress cleared our table, he swiveled around to look […]
Pandemic pupils
Going to graduate school anywhere can be a form of culture shock. Often, the transition is from cosmopolitan to erudite and razor-focused, or team-based and casual to more isolated. But moving to do graduate school in a northeastern city in the U.S. from somewhere more rural, such as southwestern Virginia (where I came from), can […]
When is the best time to start graduate school?
I’ve technically had two “first days” of graduate school. The first one was in September 2012. Fresh out of undergraduate, I arrived that fall semester at MIT – completely burned out. After graduate school applications and a grueling final senior semester, I was running on fumes. I joined a lab that semester in a field […]
Hunting for what we lost
It is a unique feeling to be having such a fantastic time that you make yourself hopelessly, achingly sad. During the Independent Activities Period (IAP) this past January, the annual MIT Mystery Hunt took place, and I competed with my undergraduate team, NES*. For those that don’t know, the MIT Mystery Hunt is a puzzle […]
Mayan, what else?
I was tired. My first semester at MIT was tougher than I had expected. I still have vivid memories of that defining evening of November. I was making my way back home with research ideas spinning in my head and started to feel anxious about the three p-sets I had to finish by week’s end. […]
Launching into the new year
Though I’ve been called a space nerd and a rocket scientist before, I’ve never felt that I never really earned that title. After all, I’ve never witnessed a live rocket launch before—that is until this past MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January 2020. After finishing my first term as a Ph.D student at MIT, […]
Getting closer to my “luck”
This is a story about an imperfect person finding her way towards incredible mentors and places. One day, I wish to hear your version of this story. 4 years ago, I was a sophomore in Singapore, studying signal processing and software development. I wasn’t the person I aspired to be – I wanted to be […]
Fostering success
Over the course of the fall semester, places in the US underwent varying stages of lockdown in hopes of slowing the spread of coronavirus. My hometown had some of the most severe lockdown rules, with all nonessential businesses halted for an extended period of time. But for all the personal sacrifices and isolation, my family […]
A food scientist’s views on instant foods
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “instant”? How about “instant foods”? When it comes to food, people tend to relate instantaneity with unhealthy, “bad for you”, or processed. All those associations were also on my mind as a consumer. However, other questions were: Why do people still consume instant foods regularly? What benefits does […]
Join today, plan for tomorrow
Whether it’s IEEE, ASME, AIChE, APS, or a different acronym, you are probably familiar with your field’s specific professional society. I became a member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) as a college freshman in 2013. Eight years later, serving on the ANS board of directors and working toward a PhD, I credit ANS with […]
My musical journey in Boston
An Instrumental Encounter “I am a musician.” I did not expect to hear those words during my lab rotation for the Health Science Technology program. I clearly remember the day. It was a chilly winter afternoon of 2018 at Lansdowne Street in Cambridge when I was introduced to a lab administrator, who showed me around […]
