School of Engineering
Never have the challenges and opportunities of engineering been more exciting or more critical to the long-term well-being of society than they are today. An engineering education from MIT provides students with exceptional opportunities to define and impact the future.
Technology's enormous influence on society is creating an increasing demand for engineering graduates. Engineers provide important leadership to society through their central role in scientific and technological innovation. By creating, developing, and managing complex technologies and products, engineers contribute directly to the betterment of humanity and to shaping our world. Seeking solutions to the most difficult challenges of our day in the context of physical, economic, human, political, legal, and cultural realities makes engineering a tremendously rewarding endeavor.
The first-year curriculum for all MIT undergraduates includes physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences. An undergraduate student normally becomes affiliated with a particular department or course of study at the beginning of sophomore year and works closely with an advisor from that department or program to shape their course of study. Students who would like to explore an engineering major are encouraged to seek out and get involved with one of the engineering departments during their first year. Every department offers exciting subjects that introduce first-year students to engineering; they also offer First-Year Advising Seminars that bring students together in small groups to discuss their field with department faculty. The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) is a great way to delve into cutting-edge engineering research.
Once a student chooses an undergraduate major, there are many opportunities for individual initiatives. For example, the New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) program aims to reimagine and rethink what and how undergraduate engineering students learn by focusing on preparing them to develop the new machines and systems that they will build in the middle of the 21st century. Also, the School's flexible engineering degree programs offer students in several departments the opportunity to satisfy department-based core requirements and declare an additional concentration, which can be broad and interdisciplinary in nature (e.g., energy, health, or the environment), or focused on areas that can be applied to multiple fields (e.g., robotics and controls, computational engineering, or engineering management). Students may also elect to create their own concentrations under supervision from department faculty. In addition, many undergraduates combine their primary major with a second one in another area, such as management, political science, economics, one of the sciences, or another area of engineering. Others organize their programs so they can receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees simultaneously. A series of minor programs from across the Institute is also available.
Pioneering Programs in Engineering Education
Engineering education has been at the core of the Institute's mission since its founding in 1861. MIT created the contemporary model of engineering education grounded in a dynamic, changing base of science. It pioneered the modern model of the research university, with externally sponsored research programs and a matrix of academic departments and research laboratories working across various disciplines. MIT also contributed in significant ways to the creation of entire new fields, for example, chemical engineering, sanitary engineering, naval architecture and marine engineering, and soil mechanics; the Institute also offered the first course in aeronautical engineering. More recently, MIT has created new avenues for students to pursue concentrations in broad, interdisciplinary areas such as computing, energy, medical science and engineering, robotics, computational engineering, or poverty alleviation.
The School of Engineering has distinguished itself as a leader in engineering education, where the teaching of applied, hands-on engineering is of the utmost importance. In 1916, it created one of the first industrial internship programs, now the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice. Over the last several decades, the School of Engineering has launched numerous pioneering programs, many in partnership with industry, such as Leaders for Global Operations (1988), System Design and Management (1997), the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation (2001), the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (2001), the Bernard M. Gordon–MIT Engineering Leadership Program (2008), MITx and edX (2011), SuperUROP (2012), StartMIT (2014), the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program (2016), and the New Engineering Education Transformation program (2017).
The School of Engineering is constantly innovating in engineering education, developing novel pedagogical approaches, designing new subject offerings to strengthen current programs, and creating new disciplines, fields of study, majors, and graduate programs. Today, the School offers more than two dozen exciting engineering degree programs for its undergraduates. For example, the flexible SB in Engineering degree is offered by Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Chemical Engineering, or Civil and Environmental Engineering.
The School of Engineering also offers a range of co-curricular activities designed to enhance students’ academic and non-academic experiences at MIT. The MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program seeks to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be successful innovators and entrepreneurs by providing up to $25,000 for student-initiated ideas and mentoring from within MIT and from a broad network of committed partners. The Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP) is a program for sophomores that provides opportunities for students to learn first-hand about engineering practice outside the academic context through internships and intensive experiential-learning workshops that emphasize development of professional abilities and attitudes required in engineering work. And SuperUROP, an expanded version of UROP, was launched in 2012 for juniors and seniors to have the time, training, resources, and guidance necessary for deep scientific and engineering inquiry leading to publication-worthy findings.
The School of Engineering is generally ranked at the top of its fields by third-party rankings and surveys. US News and World Report has placed the School at the top of its engineering rankings every year they have run their survey, as has the QS World University Rankings. Nearly a third of the School's current and emeritus faculty and research staff have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Interdepartmental Research Programs
Within the School of Engineering, students may develop a program that satisfies their own intellectual and professional objectives. Those interested in an interdepartmental program should study the department descriptions and interdisciplinary program description for opportunities that combine disciplines from MIT's four other schools or the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing with those of the School of Engineering.
While the School's academic departments provide continuity and stability for the basic engineering disciplines, they increasingly share interests in the way their individual disciplines are expressed and applied. Interdepartmental centers, laboratories, and programs provide opportunities for faculty, students, and research staff to undertake collaborative research and engage in educational programs dealing with these and other interdisciplinary applications of importance to society.
Interdisciplinary centers and laboratories in which School of Engineering faculty play leading roles include the following:
- Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems
- Center for Computational Science and Engineering
- Center for Ocean Engineering
- Center for Transportation and Logistics
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
- Industrial Performance Center
- Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
- Institute for Medical Engineering and Science
- Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
- Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
- Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity
- Materials Processing Center
- Materials Research Laboratory
- Microsystems Technology Laboratories
- MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium
- MIT Energy Initiative
- MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing
- Research Laboratory of Electronics
- Singapore-MIT Alliance
- Sociotechnical Systems Research Center
More information on interdepartmental research programs is available under Research and Study.
Degrees Offered in the School of Engineering
Aeronautics and Astronautics (Course 16)
| SB | Aerospace Engineering |
| SB | Engineering |
| SM | Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| Engineer | Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| PhD | Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Statistics 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Aerospace Computational Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Aerospace, Energy, and the Environment |
| PhD, ScD | Air-Breathing Propulsion |
| PhD, ScD | Aircraft Systems Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Air Transportation Systems |
| PhD, ScD | Autonomous Systems |
| PhD, ScD | Communications and Networks |
| PhD, ScD | Controls |
| PhD, ScD | Engineering Systems |
| PhD, ScD | Humans in Aerospace |
| PhD, ScD | Materials and Structures |
| PhD, ScD | Oceanographic Engineering (Jointly with WHOI) |
| PhD, ScD | Space Propulsion |
| PhD, ScD | Space Systems |
Biological Engineering (Course 20)
| SB | Biological Engineering |
| SM | Toxicology |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| MEng | Biomedical Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Biological Engineering |
Chemical Engineering (Course 10)
| SB | Chemical Engineering |
| SB | Chemical-Biological Engineering |
| SB | Engineering |
| SM | Chemical Engineering |
| SM | Chemical Engineering Practice |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Chemical Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Chemical Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Chemical Engineering Practice |
Civil and Environmental Engineering (Course 1)
| SB | General Engineering |
| SM | Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| MEng | Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| Civil Engineer | |
| Environmental Engineer | |
| PhD, ScD | Biological Oceanography (jointly with WHOI) |
| PhD, ScD | Chemical Oceanography (jointly with WHOI) |
| PhD, ScD | Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Civil and Environmental Systems |
| PhD, ScD | Civil Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Civil Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Coastal Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Construction Engineering and Management |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Biology |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Chemistry |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Fluid Mechanics |
| PhD, ScD | Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Hydrology |
| PhD, ScD | Information Technology |
| PhD, ScD | Oceanographic Engineering (jointly with WHOI) |
| PhD, ScD | Structures and Materials |
| PhD, ScD | Transportation |
Climate System Science and Engineering (Course 1-12)
| SB | Climate System Science and Engineering 1 |
Computation and Cognition (Course 6-9)
| SB | Computation and Cognition 1 |
| MEng | Computation and Cognition 1 |
Computational and Systems Biology
| PhD | Computational and Systems Biology 1 |
Computational Science and Engineering
| SM | Computational Science and Engineering 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Aerospace Engineering and Computational Science 1 2 |
| PhD, ScD | Chemical Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Civil Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Computational Earth, Science and Planetary Sciences 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Computational Materials Science and Engineering 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Computational Nuclear Science and Engineering 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Environmental Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Mathematics and Computational Science 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Mechanical Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Nuclear Engineering and Computation 1 |
Computer Science and Molecular Biology (Course 6-7P)
| MEng | Computer Science and Molecular Biology 1 |
Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science (Course 6-14)
| SB | Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science 1 |
Data, Systems, and Society
| SM | Technology and Policy |
| PhD, ScD | Social and Engineering Systems |
| PhD | Social and Engineering Systems and Statistics |
| PhD | Aeronautics and Astronautics and Statistics |
| PhD | Cognitive Science and Statistics |
| PhD | Economics and Statistics |
| PhD | Mathematics and Statistics |
| PhD | Mechanical Engineering and Statistics |
| PhD | Neuroscience and Statistics |
| PhD | Physics, Statistics, and Data Science |
| PhD | Political Science and Statistics |
Design and Management (System Design and Management & Integrated Design and Management)
| SM | Engineering and Management 1 |
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6)
| SB | Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making |
| SB | Computer Science and Engineering |
| SB | Electrical Engineering with Computing |
| SM | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| MEng | Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science |
| MEng | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| Electrical Engineer | |
| Engineer in Computer Science | |
| PhD, ScD | Computer Science |
| PhD, ScD | Computer Science and Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Electrical Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
Health Sciences and Technology (HST)
| SM | Health Sciences and Technology |
| MD | Medical Sciences (degree from Harvard Medical School) |
| ScD, PhD | Health Sciences and Technology |
| ScD, PhD | Health Sciences and Technology—Bioastronautics |
| ScD, PhD | Health Sciences and Technology—Medical Engineering and Medical Physics |
Materials Science and Engineering (Course 3)
| SB | Archaeology and Materials |
| SB | Materials Science and Engineering |
| SM | Materials Science and Engineering |
| Materials Engineer | |
| PhD, ScD | Archaeological Materials |
| PhD, ScD | Computational Materials Science and Engineering 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Materials Science and Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Polymers and Soft Matter 1 |
Mechanical Engineering (Course 2)
| SB | Engineering |
| SB | Mechanical and Ocean Engineering |
| SB | Mechanical Engineering |
| SM | Mechanical Engineering |
| SM | Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering |
| SM | Ocean Engineering |
| SM | Oceanographic Engineering (jointly with WHOI) |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| MEng | Manufacturing |
| Mechanical Engineer | |
| Naval Engineer | |
| PhD | Mechanical Engineering and Statistics 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Mechanical Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Mechanical Engineering and Computation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Ocean Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Oceanographic Engineering (jointly with WHOI) |
Microbiology
| PhD | Microbiology 1 |
Nuclear Science and Engineering (Course 22)
| SB | Engineering |
| SB | Nuclear Science and Engineering |
| SM | Nuclear Science and Engineering |
| SM/MBA | Engineering/Management—dual degree with Leaders for Global Operations Program 1 |
| Nuclear Engineer | |
| PhD, ScD | Computational Nuclear Science and Engineering 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Nuclear Science and Engineering |
| PhD, ScD | Nuclear Engineering and Computation 1 |
Polymers and Soft Matter
| PhD, ScD | Polymers and Soft Matter 1 |
Supply Chain Management
| MASc | Supply Chain Management 1 |
| MEng | Supply Chain Management 1 |
Transportation
| SM | Transportation 1 |
| PhD, ScD | Transportation 1 |
Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science (Course 11-6)
| SB | Urban Science and Planning with Computer Science 1 |
Notes
Many departments make it possible for a graduate student to pursue a simultaneous master’s degree.
Several departments also offer undesignated degrees, which lead to the Bachelor of Science without departmental designation. The curricula for these programs offer students opportunities to pursue broader programs of study than can be accommodated within a four-year departmental program.
| 1 | |
| 2 | Students who matriculated in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics doctoral program and the Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) doctoral program in academic year 2023–2024 or earlier can choose eitherPhD/ScD in Computational Science and Engineering or the PhD/ScD in Aerospace Engineering and Computational Science. AeroAstro/CSE students who matriculate in academic year 2024–2025 or later will receive the PhD/ScD in Aerospace Engineering and Computational Science. |
Admissions
The selection process at MIT is holistic and student-centered; each application is evaluated within its unique context. Selection is based on outstanding academic achievement as well as a strong match between the applicant and the Institute.
Undergraduate applicants do not apply to a particular school, department, or program. Although the application asks about a preferred field of study, admitted undergraduates are not required to choose a major until their sophomore year. Admissions information for regular and transfer applicants is provided in the Undergraduate section, as well as on the undergraduate admissions website.
Applicants for graduate study apply directly to their particular department or program of interest. See the individual department and program descriptions for specific requirements.
Office of the Dean
Anantha P. Chandrakasan, PhD
Vannevar Bush Professor in Electrical Engineering
Dean, School of Engineering
Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer
Maria Yang, PhD
Gail E. Kendall Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Deputy Dean, School of Engineering
Elsa Olivetti, PhD
Jerry McAfee (1940) Professor in Engineering
Associate Dean, School of Engineering
Nandi Bynoe
Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Heather Kispert Hagerty
Assistant Dean for Development
Catherine Kim
Assistant Dean for Human Resources and Administration
Macall Zimmerman
Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration
