Registration

Failure to complete registration by the end of the second week of the term will result in the loss of student status, and for international students, the loss of their visa status. As determined by the Department Committee on Graduate Students, and consistent with the policy of the MIT Registrar, a Course 4 graduate student who has not registered by the Add Date (end of fifth week) of an academic term will not be permitted to register at all in that term.

The Department will disallow access to departmental space and resources and will cancel that student's departmental employment, if any, after the fifth week of the term. No retroactive academic credit or retroactive payment will be awarded for departmental work done in the term in which the student is barred from registration.

All students, graduate and undergraduate, must file a degree application at the start of the term in which they plan to graduate. This is done online at WebSIS. Applications for advanced degrees must be submitted with working thesis titles. The deadline for finalizing the title falls near the end of term. For specifics, consult the Academic Calendar.

Undergraduates must ensure that all General Institute Requirements (GIRs) as well as departmental requirements have been satisfied by the end of the term in which they intend to graduate. The website for graduating students contains a complete checklist and calendar of deadlines. Students who have questions regarding their eligibility to graduate may contact their advisor or the degree administrator.

Petitions are required when:

• a student wants to add or drop a subject after the Institute deadline
• to correct errors in registration after Add Date
• to change an Incomplete to a letter grade after the Add Date deadline (graduate students only)
• Complete an incomplete subject from a prior semester or year (graduate students only)
• Request approval for retroactive actions in unusual circumstances
• to apply for a dual degree

The petition process for graduate students and undergraduate students is different:

• Undergraduate students will need to submit a Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) petition form for all reasons except application for a double major. The application to pursue a double major should be submitted to the Committee on Curricula (COC).
• Graduate students complete the Graduate Student Petition. Completed petitions should be submitted to Headquarters, 7-337, for directions on processing.

Download the Curriculum Petition Form

Download the OGE Petition

As prerequisite for registration, each graduate student who has indicated that English is not his or her first language must take the English Evaluation Test (EET). The test is a requirement of the Graduate School; it is a diagnostic test and is given before the fall and spring terms. The EET is a three-hour test consisting of listening, writing, and reading components, supplemented by an individual conference for each student with an English Language Studies (ELS) staff or faculty member. It is required even if the IELTS or TOEFL has been taken and passed with an acceptable score.  Results will help students, advisors, and the Department to assess what skills, if any, are needed to review in order to benefit most fully from MIT. The students and advisors will receive the results via email before Registration Day. A student receives their results as recommendations from the ELS faculty; however, these recommended courses are required by the degree program, and faculty advisors may not waive these courses for their advisees. 

Generally those who score significantly above 600 (250/computer-based; 100/internet-based) on the TOEFL require minimal work in English language writing skills. Those who score in the low 600s usually require additional help in grammar and writing skills.

Students may not defer registration in any English grammar review subject. They should take the courses within their first term or year. The most common results from the EET for Architecture students are to take the following two courses, and they must be taken in sequence:

• 21W.219 "Foundations of Academic and Professional Writing"
  • To be completed in the first term, for a letter grade only.
• 21W.227 "Advanced Workshop in Writing for Social Sciences & Architecture"
  • To be completed in the second term; may be taken as optional P/D/F grading, but not as Listener status.

Registration in required ELS subjects should be completed by the end of the first year. Registration in 21W.227, the advanced level writing for social scientists and architects subject, should be completed prior to Thesis registration.

Required English subjects do not count for unit credit toward any degree in the Department of Architecture; grades received in English subjects do, however, appear on the students' records. To this end the Architecture faculty have worked with the ELS faculty to allow for only 21W.227 to be completed under the optional P/D/F grading status. 

Consultation with ELS Instructors

Instructors in the English Language Studies Program will be available for consultation on Registration Day. Instructors are:

• Jane Dunphy, Director 14N-312, (617) 253-3069, dunphy@mit.edu
• A.C. Kemp 14N-228, (617) 253-4747, ackemp@mit.edu
• Eric Grunwald 14N-236, (617) 235-2676, egrunwald@mit.edu

All international students are required to be registered for a full-time course load, as defined by the institute as 36 units. The only allowed exceptions to this policy include the following:

• A student in their final term, who has met all program requirements except for thesis.
• A student is making satisfactory progress* towards their degree and is engaged in a TA or RA position for the duration of the term which is at least equal to the number of weekly hours otherwise spent on coursework. 

When an exception is requested, the student must be registered for a minimum of 24 units. Requests must be submitted to the Academic Administrators (arch@mit.edu) in advance of the term.

*Satisfactory progress toward the degree program is defined as the student completing all program requirements on or before their anticipated degree date, as set when they are admitted to the program.

Students may find one of the following course planner apps (which have been built out over the years by enterprising students) useful in planning out their academic schedule. Faculty advisors and Academic Administrators do not have access to view your plans on these apps, so please plan on sharing with your faculty advisor when you meet to discuss your registration plans each term. The apps are most useful for undergraduate programs, but do include graduate courses as well. Please be sure to reference graduate degree requirements available here: https://architecture.mit.edu/graduate-programs 

Firehose (https://firehose.guide/) – plan for the upcoming term only in a schedule view, and filter by GIRs, number of units, undergrad or grad level, or other filters. Can be exported to Google calendar. 

Courseroad (https://courseroad.mit.edu/) – planning broken down by term and year, making it possible to build plans for your program duration. Degree program information only included for undergrad programs, but useable by grads as well. Includes filters for GIRs, HASS, CIs, undergrad or grad level, number of units, etc. 

Fireroad (https://fireroad.mit.edu/) – essentially combines the above resources to make a mobile product with the best of both worlds. Degree program information only included for undergrad programs, but useable by grads as well. Available only as an app (Apple & Android). 

MIT Course Picker (https://picker.mit.edu/) – built out of a partnership between institute DLCs. It includes both undergrad and course level courses,  integrates with CourseRoad, and can be exported to Google. Does not have a filter for the current term, but easier to view only course 4 classes. 

Students may begin the cross-registration process at Harvard using the early add/drop forms (which establishes the registration on the Harvard side), but may fully submit them (in order for the Harvard course to show on your MIT status of registration) only after registering at MIT. The student goes to MIT's online add/drop application and uses the EARLY ADD/DROP form.  In the add section, enter a search term or Harvard subject number in the "Add Harvard Subject" field. Once the dropdown display populates, select the desired subject and proceed with the usual add subject process.

Clicking the "Submit for Approval" button will automatically send the information to Harvard when the instructor will approve. Once the approval is given, the information is sent back to MIT and your advisor will receive notification to approve the add request in the MIT add/drop system. Once the approval is given, the student will need to submit the approved Harvard add to the MIT Registrar the same as for any other add request.

Full-time MIT sophomores, juniors, seniors may not cross-register for classes at the Harvard Business School, Harvard Extension School, or Harvard Law School.

MIT undergraduate students are able to cross-register at Wellesley College during the fall and spring terms only.

Undergraduate students are only allowed to register for one subject per term at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. All subjects are graded pass/fail and cannot be used to fulfill Institute, department or minor requirements.

Cross-Registration Guidelines for Massachusetts College of Art and Design and can be found on the Art, Culture and Technology program's website (forms available there).

Students should submit a proposal to the supervisor that includes:

• A statement of the intellectual goal of the project
• An explanation of the relation of the proposed endeavor to the student’s overall educational goal
• A plan for approaching the intellectual problem 
• A statement of the expected deliverables and their evaluation 
• A statement of the amount of time to be expended in the effort (a timetable of deliverables)

Before registering for an independent study subject, a student must obtain an appropriate subject number from the degree administrator in the department’s headquarters (Room 7-337) using an Independent Study Project Form (save to computer or device before completing form  — file is a fillable PDF). The subject must be added to the student’s registration using the online Add/Drop application.

The following information is required to complete the form:

• Student’s name, department of major, MIT ID number and e-mail address 
• Subject level (graduate or undergraduate) 
• Grading system (grade or pass/fail, to be determined by the supervisor) 
• Credit units to be earned, based on the duration and effort to be expended (generally 6, 9 or 12) 
• A proposal 
• Signature of project supervisor

Pay close attention to your Status of Registration posted on WebSIS after the second week. Notify the degree administrators if you find errors or have questions.