Aerospace Engineering

With an MIT aerospace engineering degree, you can seek career opportunities in such fields as commercial and military aircraft and spacecraft engineering, space exploration, air and space telecommunications, academia, research and military service.

The MIT AeroAstro (or Course 16 as we’re known at MIT) undergraduate program prepares you for entry-level positions in aerospace and related engineering fields, and for continuing on to graduate school. Employers place a premium on MIT graduates knowing that they are the best-prepared new aerospace engineers in the world. Our demanding technical education emphasizing the understanding of complex systems is also excellent preparation for careers in business, law, medicine, and public service.

AeroAstro offers a comprehensive undergraduate curriculum. While undergraduates normally enter the department as sophomores, there are numerous opportunities in AeroAstro for freshmen.

Sophomores start with Unified Engineering, which offers a sound understanding of aerospace engineering’s fundamental disciplines: statics, materials and structures, thermodynamics and propulsion, fluid mechanics, and signals and systems. Laboratory experiments are also performed in Unified Engineering. Our majors also complete Differential Equations.

To complete the core requirements, students pursuing the Course 16 degree take additional core subjects in dynamics, principles of automatic control, statistics and probability, and in computer programming.  Students matriculating in the Course 16-ENG program also take computer programming and either dynamics or principles of automatic control; they are not required to take statistics and probability.

In addition to the above, Course 16 degree candidates complete a minimum of four subjects (48 units) from among a group of professional area subjects, with subjects in at least three areas.  As stated earlier, these areas include fluid mechanics, materials and structures, propulsion, computational tools, estimation and control, computer systems, communication systems, and humans and automation.  Students may choose to complete an "option" in Aerospace Information Technology by taking a minimum of 36 units (out of the 48 units required) from a designated group of subjects specified in the Course 16 degree chart. 

Students pursuing the 16-ENG degree take six additional subjects (72 units) from among the subjects in the student’s chosen concentration, i.e. aerospace software engineering; autonomous systems; communications, embedded systems and networks; computational engineering, computational sustainability; energy; engineering management, environment; space exploration; transportation; or in a self-defined concentration proposed by the student and approved by a concentration advisor. 

To fulfill the capstone requirement, students work with a partner and a faculty advisor in either their junior or senior year to propose and perform an original experiment during a two-semester experimental research project.  Students can also team up to apply their undergraduate knowledge and skills to the design of an aircraft or spacecraft system.  In the past, these projects have included a space-based telescope, a climate-monitoring satellite, and a walking planetary rover.  Students must complete a minimum of two professional area or concentration subjects before enrolling in the flight design (16.82) or the space design (16.83) capstone.

In addition to the formal subjects, students study written and oral communication skills and teamwork; the social, economic, and political context in which engineering is practiced; and professional responsibility.

Students also must satisfy MIT's General Institute Requirements and take four elective subjects in disciplines of their choice.

AeroAstro Curriculum

The AeroAstro undergraduate curriculum consists of three main blocks:

• Core Curriculum: Introduces students to aerospace engineering fundamentals.
• Professional Area and Concentration Subjects: Courses that treat more extensively, and in greater depth, the material covered in the Core Curriculum. Concentration subjects provide students in-depth study of a field of the student’s choosing.
• Capstone Subjects: Through experimental work and projects, integrates engineering disciplines, and applies much of what has been learned in the Core, Professional Area and Concentration subjects.

Core Curriculum

The AeroAstro Core Curriculum introduces students to the fundamental disciplines of aerospace engineering, providing a basic understanding of:

• materials and structures
• fluids and aerodynamics
• thermodynamics
• physics and dynamics
• electronic signals, systems
• circuits, propulsion, control systems, computer programming, probability and statistics (only for the Course 16 degree)

Much of the Core Curriculum is covered in a course called Unified Engineering, which is offered in sets of two 12-unit subjects in two successive semesters, and taught cooperatively by several faculty members. AeroAstro students take Unified Engineering together, building friendships and connections. Laboratory experiments are performed, and systems problems tying the disciplines together are included.

In addition to Unified Engineering, in the Core Curriculum there are five other courses for Course 16 students and three other courses for Course 16-ENG students. Two courses — Dynamics and Principles of Automatic Control — are typically taken in the first semester of the junior year. (Students in the 16-ENG program — see below — have the option of taking either Dynamics or Principles of Automatic Control.) The other Core Curriculum courses are Differential Equations; Computer Programming; and Statistics and Probability (required for 16, but not 16-ENG, students). These courses are usually taken in the sophomore year.

Professional Area Subjects (Course 16)

Professional area subjects are courses that treat more completely, and in greater depth, the material covered in the Core Curriculum. Aerospace engineering subjects represent traditional aerospace disciplines integral to the design and construction of modern aircraft and spacecraft. Subjects in aerospace information technology are in the broad disciplinary area of information technology, which plays an ever-increasing role in modern aircraft and spacecraft.  Students must take four subjects (48 units) from among the Course 16 professional area subjects, with subjects in at least three areas. Students may choose to complete an option in aerospace information technology by taking 36 units from a designated group of subjects specified in the degree chart.

Concentration Subjects (16-ENG)

A significant part of the 16-ENG curriculum consists of electives selected by the student to provide in-depth study of a field of choice. A wide variety of concentrations is possible in which well-selected academic subjects complement a foundation in aerospace engineering and General Institute Requirements. The department has put in place several concentrations in the areas of aerospace software engineering, autonomous systems, communications, computational engineering,computational sustainability, energy, engineering management, environment, space exploration, and transportation. Concentrations are not limited to those listed above. Students can select a pre-defined concentration or may design and propose a technically oriented concentration that reflects their own needs and those of society. All concentrations must be approved by a concentration advisor and by the AeroAstro Undergraduate Office. A student's overall program must contain a total of at least 1.5 years of engineering content (144 units) appropriate to the student's field of study. The required core, lab, and capstone subjects include 102 units of engineering topics. Thus, concentrations must include at least 42 more units of engineering topics. In addition, each concentration must include 12 units of mathematics or science.

Experimental and Capstone Subjects

Culminating the two programs are our aerospace laboratories and capstone subject sequences. These subjects serve to integrate the various disciplines, and emphasize the conceive-design-implement-operate context of the curriculum. Several of them also fulfill the requirement for the Institute Lab and CI-M [communication intensive subjects (2) in the major].

The vehicle and system design subjects (16.82 and 16.83) require student teams to apply their undergraduate knowledge to the design of an aircraft or spacecraft system. One of these two subjects is required and is typically taken in the second term of the junior year or in the senior year. Students are expected to complete at least two professional area or concentration subjects to be allowed in 16.82 or 16.83, both of which also satisfy the Institute CI-M (Communication Intensive Subject in the Major) requirement. The rest of the capstone requirement is met by one of three 18-unit subjects or subject sequences: 16.621 and 16.622 Experimental Projects I and II; or 16.821 Flight Vehicle Development; or 16.831 Space Systems Development. These sequences satisfy the Institute Laboratory as well as CI-M requirements. In 16.821 and 16.831 students build and operate the vehicles or systems developed in 16.82 and 16.83. In 16.621/16.622, students conceive, design, and execute an original experimental research project in collaboration with a partner and a faculty advisor.

Note: students must take at least one CI-M subject in the junior year and a second in the senior year, but since the 16.82/16.821 and 16.83/16.831 sequences meet alternate years, juniors interested in either of these sequences may end up taking both CI-M subjects in their senior year.  In these circumstances, affected juniors will petition the Subcommittee on the Communication Requirement with endorsement from the department's Undergraduate Office.

Requirements

• Application fee / fee waiver
• Parent Information
• Essays
• Self-reported Coursework Form
• At MIT, we require letters of recommendation from two teachers (one math/science, one humanities), plus materials from your school counselor (typically including your transcript, a school profile, and a letter of recommendation). 
• TOEFL iBT 100
• Interview

Scholarships

• Need-based Aid