General Admissions Information

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 apply.
 
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.  Admitted students who are deemed deficient in these areas 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).
 
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.

A completed application consists of:

  1. The completed application form
  2. Statement of Objectives
  3. Minimum of three letters of recommendation
  4. Uploaded official/unofficial copies of transcripts.  We will require official transcripts upon admission.
  5. Self-report GRE results - general test only. Please ask ETS to send the official GRE scores to us. Inst. code 3514, Dept. code 1502.
  6. 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.  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). We will accept the TOEFL Home Edition as long as the result is officially sent to us from TOEFL directly.  
    The IELTS/TOEFL will be waived for any student graduating from a US school. Students whose citizenship is from India are exempt from taking the IELTS or TOEFL exam.
  7. Please refer to 2N admissions information or faculty for admissions details as this program may have additional requirements.

Application Process

The application website (see link below) will be available as of September 15, 2025 for students who wish to apply for graduate admission in September 2026. The deadline for submitting completed applications is December 15, 2025.

Applicants to the MIT MechE graduate program should apply using the MechE online admissions site: https://apply.mit.edu/apply/

For any questions not answered by the FAQs, please send inquiries to megradoffice@mit.edu.

Graduate Degree Programs

The department offers the following degrees:

  1. Master of Science (SM)
  2. Master of Engineering in the discipline of Manufacturing Only (MEng) 
  3. Naval Engineer’s Degree
  4. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Doctor of Science (ScD)

Early Admission for MIT MechE Seniors

The intent of the Early Admission program is to allow MIT undergraduate students who are seniors with a high GPA, who are ahead of the eight-term graduation schedule, and who have clearly defined research plans, to spend time in the Spring Term of the senior year starting on their graduate work. We encourage applications from seniors with a minimum GPA of 4.8 overall, as well as in their technical classes, though compelling cases with lower GPAs can be considered. Compelling would entail having a well-articulated research plan including a faculty member who supports the early admission application.

A required part of the application is a detailed statement explaining your research plans and how you intend to use the Spring Term to prepare for and ideally make progress towards your graduate degree. All applications must include this separate statement, which must be appended as a separate page(s) to your statement of objectives. This statement will be used by the department as part of the evaluation for early admission, and must clearly address the following topics in identified sections of the statement:

  1. The remaining undergraduate commitments that you will need to satisfy during the Spring Term.
  2. How you will use the Spring Term to make a start on your Graduate work, either by taking graduate classes and/or by working with a faculty member on a potential graduate thesis project.
  3. Your case for early admission will be more convincing if you are able to identify a faculty member who has agreed to work with you, and if you are able to articulate the work you plan to undertake with this faculty member.

As stated above, a letter of recommendation from the identified faculty member supporting early admission and detailing their plans to work with you in your graduate research program can make the case for admission more compelling.

The application website will open on September 15. GRE scores are required for the 2026 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.