Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology


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Graduate Program

Guidelines

Scheduling for Students in Doctoral Programs

Year 1

 

First semester

3.20, 3.23

Second semester

3.21, 3.22

May

General Written Exam

August before Year 2

Submit request to qualify as registrant in PhD/ScD program

Year 2

 

First semester

Two Academic Program Restricted Electives

February

General Oral Exam

Between Oral exam and end of first semester, Year 3

Form thesis committee and present thesis proposal

Year 3

Two remaining Academic Restricted Electives

Years 3 and 4

Complete subjects for Minor Requirement

Year 4 or later

Preliminary defense of thesis; final defense of thesis

Students are advised to keep in mind that the months of May and August tend to be the months where scheduling a presentation may be difficult because of faculty unavailability and availability of presentation rooms.

Registration Limits

Students holding research assistantships may register for no more than 39 units each semester; this limitation will nevertheless allow them to take the two core subjects and one restricted elective subject in each of the first two semesters. Research assistants must, however, obtain the permission of their advisors to register for more than two core subjects each semester. Students holding fellowships are not bound by either restriction.

Teaching assistants register for 3.691-3.699 Teaching Materials Science and Engineering (12 units), for which they are graded based on their teaching performance, and are further restricted to 27 units of additional coursework each term the teaching assistantship is held. First-year teaching assistants are therefore able to take only the two core subjects in the term(s) in which they hold a TA.

Foreign Language

There is no foreign language requirement for the doctorate in this Department. Students who wish to study a foreign language may use appropriate classes to satisfy the Minor Requirement. Degree Candidates for whom English is a second language should take great care to ensure that their thesis is written with acceptable English grammar. Thesis supervisors and committee members should not have to take significant time to correct pervasive grammatical errors, but rather focus their attention on thesis content.

 

Back to PhD requirements.

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