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.
AeroAstro students built these UAVs for the US Air Force to employ in ground based sensor system calibration.
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: materials and structures, thermodynamics and propulsion, fluid mechanics, and signals and systems.
In their junior year, students study dynamics and principles of automatic control.
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.
These subjects, together with three advanced physics and math subjects, constitute AeroAstro’s core curriculum. Beyond this, students select four subjects in three of six professional areas of interest.
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 the disciplines of their choice.
For a more detailed look at the AeroAstro undergraduate program, visit the Curriculum page.
