are there graduate mechanical or aerospace engineering majors in here?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>i wanted to ask...what's the most common way for them to get research assistantships? Are there labs outside of MIT that one can do research for to get funding?</p>

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<p>I WANT to major in aerospace engineering. :-D</p>

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<p>My husband is a 2007 graduate of the aerospace engineering department who's going back next year to start his master's.</p>

<p>He says the most common RAs are for the department itself, but that some people do funded RAs at Draper Labs and possibly at Lincoln Labs.</p>

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<p>Mollie, can you ask Adam one question on my behalf?</p>

<p>I'm a staunch 16er and am curious how the MIT gradschool works. My plan thusfar is to go for a PhD post under-grad. Can you go straight into a PhD program and get the masters sort of along the way, which seems to be common in the sciences, or do you have to get a masters completely independently, and then go for a PhD completely independently?</p>

<p>Sorry to thread hijack a bit.</p>

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<p>No problem -- Course 16 has a joint master's/PhD program, so everybody applies for both, technically, then the people who just want a master's leave after they complete a master's. You do have to complete qualifying exams before you start the PhD, and the course 16 quals are no walk in the park, but you're already officially admitted for the PhD.</p>

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<p>How hard is it to get into Grad School? Course 16.</p>

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<p>I would assume it depends on your experience with research and grades in MIT. I must imagine that if you do well undergrad at MIT, you are pretty qualified for grad at MIT, granted you aren't in one of those majors that don't allow "inbreeding"</p>

<p>@Mollie
Thanks for the information!</p>

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<p>If you go to MIT as an undergrad, getting into the course 16 master's program is something of a given -- my husband's year, only two of the MIT undergrads in the department who applied didn't get in.</p>

<p>If you don't go to MIT as an undergrad, it's somewhat harder. The acceptance rate for the master's program is about 50%, but of course that's somewhat inflated by the almost-100% MIT undergrad acceptance rate.</p>