<p>I applied to the Masters Materials Science Engineering Program for Fall 2014 admission. About an hour ago I received an email from that department of admissions congratulations on my admission to DMSE for fall 2014 admission, a list of accepted student visit days and mentioning that an official letter would be mailed to me but that they wanted to congratulate me immediately.</p>
<p>A few minutes later I received another email from the same person in the department saying that an email error was sent out, that applications are still being processed, and a third email (again apologizing) and saying that they only officially admit via hardcopy letter.</p>
<p>Then the original congratulatory email mysteriously disappeared from my account. (although I still have a copy of it)</p>
<p>I am wondering how many other applicants this happened to (if any)? Does this really mean that some applicants ARE actually receiving real acceptance letters currently? That rejection is pending? </p>
<p>All I can do is laugh (and be very grateful that I didn't start telling people I was accepted), but this is a very very cruel mistake (read, joke) that only adds to the already immense stress of the graduate application process.</p>
<p>I guess either way, I can say that I was accepted to MIT--if only for about 45 seconds.</p>
<p>The exact same thing happened to me, except I only received the one “error” email about an hour after the acceptance letter. I’d already told a bunch of people, it was a real let down.</p>
<p>Hmmm, that’s odd. As an undergraduate in Course 3, I’ve come to understand an M.S. degree from MIT Materials Science & Engineering as a consolation prize for students who don’t finish their Ph.D’s. In this way, the student walks away with more than nothing and the graduate program can maintain the statistic of 100% graduation. I’ve also understood this to be the policy of many other MIT science and engineering departments. I may be misinformed, but I can say that all of my graduate TA’s have been PhD students and I haven’t run into a single Masters student in the department.</p>
<p>The Course 3 S.M. is “real.” There is a so-called “by-pass” option in which students can be admitted directly to the Ph.d program without getting the S.M. first, but it requires passing generals within a year after admission and taking certain pre-req courses. If you flunk the generals I guess you get a “consolation” S.M. Otherwise you HAVE to get an S.M. before being admitted to the Ph.d program. I got this from the current web site. You probably don’t see too many S.M. students as TA’s because the way course load restrictions work. It generally takes longer in most departments to get an S.M. if you are a TA. Also, most S.M. people are not headed into teaching, so the experience may not be so valuable. The only course I know of in which a Master’s might be considered a “consolation prize” is physics, where they only offer Ph.d admissions. Perhaps there are others, but I don’t think any of the engineering disciplines are among them. I got my S.B. and S.M. at the same time after 5 years in Course 2 (admittedly a long time ago), and became a grad student in what would have been second semester senior year. Though I was offered a TA, I took an RA instead because it saved me a semester (and the net pay was better). The “terminal” S.M. is common in engineering and is not necessarily a sign of an inferior student – just someone who is not heading into academia. After military service I was later admitted to the ME Ph.d program at Berkeley, but ended up at Harvard instead in professional school.</p>
<p>Over 1,000 students are currently registered in the School of Engineering as Master’s degree candidates, not Doctoral degree candidates (of which there are over 2,000), and that includes 88 terminal SM students in Materials Science & Engineering (vs. 116 PhD students). [Enrollment</a> Statistics: MIT Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar) Last year, the School of Engineering awarded more Master’s degrees than it awarded Bachelor’s degrees, and more than twice as many Master’s degrees as Doctoral degrees. [Enrollment</a> Statistics: MIT Office of the Registrar](<a href=“Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar”>Statistics & Reports | MIT Registrar) </p>
<p>In other words, MIT has an active terminal Master’s program in Course 3.</p>
<p>You generally won’t see many terminal Master’s students as TAs because (a) many elite private universities don’t have grad students TAing until they have completed all or most of what would be the coursework for a SM, and (b) the TA positions are part of the funding package given to PhD students, and will not ordinarily be available to SM students. If you are taking graduate-level courses, however, many/most of the grad students there will be terminal SM candidates, not PhD students.</p>
<p>Many/most universities will award a Master’s degree to PhD students who are not planning to complete their degrees but have met the requirements for the Master’s degree.</p>