Standardized Test Requirements
Usually, the GRE (general) test is required of all applicants. However, for the 2025 graduate admission process (Due December 15, 2024) the department of Mechanical Engineering will not require GRE tests. We will thus not use GRE scores as a basis for evaluating candidates for admission in this year's application process.
However, the IELTS test is required of all international applicants whose "native" language is not English, unless the student has received a degree from a U.S. school. In this case we will accept a photocopy of an outdated TOEFL score provided it meets our minimum standards of: 577 on paper based; 233 on computer-based; 100 on internet-based, IELTS = 7.0. Applications that do not meet these requirements will not be evaluated.
IELTS scores must be requested from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in order for a file to be considered complete. Please allow four to six weeks for ETS to send the "official" score reports to the department. Copies of these scores should be sent with the application and will be used only until "official" scores have been received. NO IELTS WAIVERS ARE GRANTED.
GRE and IELTS tests
Educational Testing Service (ETS) information:
ETS Telephone number: 1-800-529-3590
ETS website: http://www.gre.org/
MIT Code: 3514
ME Department Code: 1502
IELTS tests: Institute address is sufficient for notification (no code number is required)
Writing Ability Requirement
All incoming graduate students must demonstrate satisfactory English writing ability, or successfully complete appropriate training in writing. This requirement reflects the faculty's conviction that writing is an essential skill for an engineer with an advanced degree.
All incoming graduate students, native as well as foreign, must take the Institute writing ability test, which is administered online over the Summer before matriculaton, or before the start of the Fall semester, usually in September. Depending on the results, a student will either (a) pass the writing ability requirement; (b) be required to take a short, but intensive, seminar-workshop in expository writing during the Independent Activities Period in January.
Note that all graduate students for whom English has not been the language of instruction in both elementary and secondary school are also required by MIT to take an English Evaluation Test. This test is separate from the departmental writing ability test.