Master of Engineering
From GradBook
The MIT Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (MEng EECS) professional degree program is designed to be combined with one of the three bachelor degree programs in MIT EECS into a seamless five-year course of study that includes advanced coursework beyond the bachelor requirements and a thesis.
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History
Prof. William Siebert (now emeritus) first proposed the idea of a five-year professional degree in the late 1980s. Many EECS faculty committees worked on developing what came to be known as the MEng over the next several years. The program, which included a new curriculum for the undergraduate degrees and introduced the 6-2 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degree, was approved by MIT in 1993.
Admission and eligibility
Only MIT undergraduates majoring in Course VI who are juniors or higher may apply for the MEng program. Although MIT EECS undergraduates may apply for the regular graduate program, they must complete the MEng before continuing on for the PhD. The MEng application is online, and opens a month before the December 1st and May 1st deadlines. Reply dates are about six weeks later. The application is very brief, requiring only that students describe their UROPs and other projects/internships, and outline how they may complete the program. Decisions are based largely on the technical gpa (classes in 6, 8, and 18, plus for 6-7, 5, 7 and 20), although students should have undertaken at least one UROP. Students must have at least a 4.25 technical gpa. For students who are put on hold or who choose to apply in the senior year, the technical gpa is considered for the last three terms, or with the worst term dropped out.
Once they are admitted to the MEng Program they may choose when they wish to become graduate students. To take grad status early a student should have at last 180 units beyond the GIRS, graduate support, and no more than six classes remaining for both the bachelors and the MEng, and a thesis supervisor. Normally students take grad status after their eighth term.
Requirements
The MEng requires successful completion of one of the Course VI bachelor degree programs, two advanced math subjects, 66 units of credit (of which 42 units must be earned from four AAGS, at least three of them in EECS), a three subject concentration in a subfield from the AUS and AAGS subjects, and a thesis. For more details, see the [1]. The structure of the 6-P7 MEng is a little different; see [2].
Administration
The administrator of the MEng program is Anne Hunter.
Course of the program
Though the program is conceived to be a seamless five-year combined course with the bachelor's, MIT policies and human psychology dictate otherwise. The MIT Registrar requires that every regular student be categorized as either an undergraduate or graduate student, but not both. Students admitted to the MEng program may change their status to graduate student after they've earned 180 units beyong the GIRs, even if they haven't completed the requirements for the bachelors. This move may afford them certain privileges, such as being a TA or RA, though RAs and TAs are limited to taking only two subjects.
Students are intended to receive the SB and MEng simultaneously at the end of five years. Pressures such as the parents' desire to see their child get an MIT degree after four years and students' desire to attend Commencement with the rest of their non-Course VI classmates cause a majority of students to pick up their SB degrees after four years and the MEng a year later.
A large minority of students take longer than five total years at to receive the MEng degree. The most common reason is that such students may have TAed one or more times, which significantly slows down thesis progress, especially if the students are still taking subjects.
Buckets
MIT's policies make a distinction between undergraduate and graduate programs. MIT has a set of unit requirements to get a bachelor's degree and a different set of unit requirements to get a master's degree. Each class must be specifically in one program or another. Even though the EECS department wants the MEng program to be an undergraduate/graduate hybrid program, MIT does not have the policy framework to support this. Classes must be placed in either their undergraduate "bucket" or their graduate "bucket."
For more details about buckets, see the Buckets page.
Problems with the MEng Program:
Course 6 undergraduates choose to do the MEng Program because they want to get the masters credential, feeling that it will give them a high career arc or help them get into a better PhD Program, or because they want to take grad classes in a field and do a research thesis. Some students have had a hard time finding funding as TAs or RAs, even failing completely -- most of those choose not to continue for the MEng, so that almost all of those continuing for MEng do have support. It can be hard to find an MEng thesis supervisor, because supervisors often prefer to take PhD students. Students therefore have problems finding a supervisor and beginning a project in the senior year, so that they end up spending more than one year completing MEng. Students who think they may want to do a PhD would be well-advised to apply for the PhD as seniors and do the MEng while admitted to the PhD. It's very important that students who want to MEng do UROPs early and often so that they have the right supervisor and project by the middle of their senior year.
Some faculty and PhD students seem to feel that MEng students aren't *really* grad students. MEngers are welcome in grad classes, as they increase the number of students and therefore the amount of staff allotted to those subjects.
