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The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) offers doctoral and master’s degree programs that lie at the interfaces of engineering, the applied sciences (from biology to physics), and technology. Particular areas of academic focus include applied mathematics, applied physics, bioengineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental sciences and engineering, mechanical engi­neering, and engineering and physical biology.

In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of modern research, SEAS does not have traditional academic departments and does not award degrees by specific research area.

Students may instead work towards a Master of Science, Master of Engineering, and Doctor of Philosophy degree in one of four subjects—Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, Computer Science, and Engi­neering Sciences—or graduate with a PhD in the Science, Technology and Management program (with Harvard Business School).

Students may also pursue collaborative options through the PhD track in Engineering and Physical Biology (EPB), which is joint with Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences or the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) program, which is part of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

The faculty members in the SEAS, nearly 30 percent of whom have joint appointments in other research areas, have close ties with the science departments (especially Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Earth and Planetary Sciences) in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and increasing ties to Harvard’s professional schools (including business and medicine).

The majority of the course offerings, most of which span across disciplines, are listed in the Courses of Instruction under the following broad headings: applied mathematics, applied physics, computer science, and engineering sciences. In addition to lecture courses and seminars, students may take directed reading and research courses in connection with their dissertations and, on occasion, use them to explore topics not covered in regular courses. Programs that include considerable work in one or more science departments are common. Students may supplement their studies by cross-registering in other Harvard graduate schools or at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Certain limitations apply.) 

Degree Requirements

Students may work towards three graduate degrees—master of science (considered, in most cases, a terminal degree), master of engineering (a terminal degree), or doctor of philosophy—in one of four areas: applied mathematics, applied physics, computer science, and engineering sciences. The require­ments for each degree are summarized below. Please note that the SEAS graduate degree requirements are currently under review and are subject to change.

Master of Science (SM)

The master of science (SM) degree is awarded for the successful completion of eight half-courses (one half-course runs one term) at Harvard. The SM degree is non-research based and is considered, in most cases, a terminal degree. Upon successful completion of the SM degree, any student planning to pursue the PhD degree (see below), must formally apply to the PhD program (see below). No prefer­ential treatment is given to SM degree holders seeking admission to the PhD program. As students admitted to the PhD program can apply for and receive SM on completion of the requirements for the master’s degree, we strongly encourage any student who is consid­ering ultimately pursuing the PhD at Harvard to apply directly to the PhD program.

Master of Engineering (ME)

Students who wish to pursue more advanced formal training without undertaking the research required for the PhD degree may earn the ME degree by successfully completing one year of coursework beyond that required for the SM degree. The ME is a terminal degree at Harvard. No dissertation, foreign language, or general examination is required.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The PhD requires a minimum academic residency of two years beyond the bachelor’s degree. Programs are individually tailored and approved by a committee on higher degrees. Normally, students spend one-and-one-half to two years on coursework—10 half-courses, including at least eight disciplinary courses. Depth and breadth of knowledge are impor­tant guiding principles in the PhD program.

The first year is ordinarily spent princi­pally on coursework, although some students may begin research. The second year is usually divided between coursework and research, with coursework completed during the third year if necessary. As soon as coursework is completed, students conduct research full time. Original research culminating in the dissertation is usually completed in the fourth or fifth year. No foreign language is required.

Oral Qualifying Examination: Prepara­tion in the major field is evaluated in an oral examination by a qualifying committee. The examination has the dual purpose of verifying the adequacy of the student’s preparation for undertaking research in a chosen field and of assessing the student’s ability to synthesize knowledge already acquired.

Dissertation: Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination, a committee chaired by the research supervisor is consti­tuted to oversee the dissertation research. The dissertation must, in the judgment of the research committee, meet the standards of significant and original research.

Final Oral Examination: This public examination devoted to the field of the disser­tation is conducted by the student’s research committee. It includes, but is not restricted to, a defense of the dissertation itself. 

Admission

Students with bachelor’s degrees in science, mathematics, or engineering are invited to apply for admission. Since the undergraduate programs of entering students are diverse, the courses students must take to round out their training are extremely varied, and a committee on higher degrees helps students design appropriate plans of study. Many students embark on programs that lead to careers only peripherally related to their undergraduate majors.

Students begin graduate study only in the fall term. Completed applications should be submitted as early as possible in the fall of the preceding academic year. We will begin processing and reviewing applications in mid-January. Our preferred deadline is December 15. Submitting your application and supporting materials to us by December 15 will expedite the processing and review of your application. Our final deadline is January 2. Applications for the fall term received after January 2 may not receive full consideration for admission and financial aid. Applications for admission for the spring term are not ordinarily accepted.

Applicants must take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) general test. Although the GRE Subject Test is not required, performance on the relevant GRE Subject Test will be considered if it is available. Our experience indicates that the results of this test can be espe­cially helpful in the case of foreign applicants. Students whose native language is not English and who have not received a degree from an institution where English is the language of instruction must submit, as part of their appli­cation, the results of the test of English as a foreign language, administered by the Educa­tional Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey.

Applications from minorities and women are particularly welcome. We require online submission of the application and strongly prefer online submission of the letters of recommendation. See www.gsas.harvard.edu. Application forms may also be requested from the website, or by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or by writing: Admissions Office, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Holyoke Center, 3rd floor, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. 

Financial Aid

Candidates for master’s degrees are not eligible for financial aid. Students are expected to complete their PhD requirements in four to six years. Typically all students admitted to the PhD program in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences receive full financial support, comprising tuition, fees, and a cost­of-living stipend ($2,375 per month before taxes in 2009-10), independent of need as long as they are in good academic standing and making satisfactory progress toward their PhD degree. All students who receive financial support from SEAS participate in the School’s educational program for about ten hours a week for one term—usually as quarter time teaching fellows or in a similar capacity, during their second year of study.

To provide full support throughout the program for all PhD candidates, SEAS antici­pates that a certain number of entering students will gain support from sources outside Harvard. Applicants are therefore expected to apply for all non-Harvard scholarships for which they are eligible, especially those offered by the National Science Foundation.

Because bringing in external fellowship support helps us support more students with internal funds, NSF fellows will receive a supplemental fellowship to bring their stipends up to $3,000 above the standard SEAS amount in the first year, and will be eligible for supple­mental research assistantships in subsequent years. Recipients of other external awards made on the basis of open competition receive similar considerations on a pro-rated basis.

Financial support takes several forms: grants-in-aid (fellowships), teaching fellow­ships, and research assistantships. Ordinarily, first-year PhD students are supported with full fellowships so that they may devote all their time to coursework. Beyond the first year, when students are in a better position to teach and assist in research, support is ordinarily provided through research assistantships, or a combination of a teaching fellowship and a research assistantship.

Candidates for PhD and master’s degrees can occasionally be employed as technical assistants on one of the numerous research projects in the SEAS or in a similar capacity in other parts of the University. During the academic year, full-time students may not accept employment inside or outside the University, other than teaching fellowships or research assistantships, that involves a commitment of more than ten hours per week, without special permission. 

Part-Time Master’s Program

The SEAS admits a limited number of part-time students as candidates for the SM degree to study at a rate of one or two half-courses per term. Under unusual circumstances, full-time candidates for graduate degrees may petition for permission to study part-time, ordinarily at a rate of two half-courses per term. Similarly, candidates for the master’s degree who need fewer than four half-courses to complete the requirements for the degree can arrange to be charged tuition on a per course basis. Visa regulations prohibit foreign nationals who are not permanent residents of the US from registering for part-time study.

Collaborative Programs

Engineering and Physical Biology PhD Track

Students admitted to the EPB program through the SEAS will have somewhat different degree requirements than those described above. During the first year, an EPB student will take two half courses specifically designed for this program plus an EPB-specific summer tutorial in compu­tation. Six other half-courses taken in the first year and four half-courses taken in the second year must include one half-course in bio-engineering, bio-materials or bio-physics, and nine halfcourses drawn from offerings in Applied Mathematics, Applied Physics, and Engineering Sciences. Within these guidelines, the individual program of coursework will be developed by the student in consultation with an EPB Mentoring Committee and repre­sentatives of the SEAS. Students will also be speakers each year in an annual one-day EPB/ daVinci symposium. Each student in the EPB program will be required to be a teaching fellow in two approved half-courses, with this requirement to be fulfilled by the end of the third year.

Oral Qualifying Examination: Suitability for PhD dissertation research will be determined by a qualifying examination to be taken in the spring of the second year. This oral examina­tion will be conducted by faculty representing biology, biochemistry, engineering and physics and will require the student to respond to questions regarding subject, experimental approaches and conclusions in abstracts of four scientific papers, one from each of the above areas.

Dissertation: Research may begin as early as the end of the first year or as late as the end of the second year and may be undertaken in the laboratory of any member of the daVinci Group which supports this program, or with another member of the FAS science faculty. Dissertation research will normally be completed in five or six years from matriculation. 

Medical Engineering and Medical Physics Program

http://hst.mit.edu
Overview: The five- to six-year Medical Engineering and Medical Physics (MEMP) program leads to the PhD or ScD in Medical Engineering or Medical Physics awarded by MIT, or the PhD awarded by Harvard’s Grad­uate School of Arts and Sciences.

The MEMP curriculum gives students hands-on experience in biomedical sciences and engineering to allow them to explore the fundamental principles underlying human biology and diseases, discover new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and ultimately ameliorate human suffering. The range of interests of students in the program is vast; a small sampling of topics includes molecular biology, modeling of biological systems, medical imaging and visualization, instru­mentation, biomaterials, and cellular biome­chanics.

Requirements and Dissertation: Although pathways through the MEMP program are intended to be individualized and therefore vary widely, there is a broad curricular and administrative structure that is common to all paths within MEMP. Curricular requirements fall roughly into three segments: pre-qualifying, clinical, and dissertation. Curricular tracks within MEMP are Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Systems Physiology and Medicine.

Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics (BIG)

Overview: BIG is a specialized area of study within HST’s Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program. In BIG, bioinfor­matics is viewed in a broad sense to comprise the overall activity of extracting the functional dependencies of biological systems from the data generated by sequence, microarray, proteomics, and metabolism-probing tech­nologies.

Students interested in BIG are admitted to MEMP and normally take MEMP’s cellular and molecular medicine track along with additional courses specifically to fulfill the BIG concentration. The BIG program seeks students with a very strong quantita­tive science background. To be considered for admission, students must have completed at least a baccalaureate degree in engineering or physical science or computer science (or equivalent). Recommended preparation includes at least one undergraduate subject in each of the following areas: biology, organic chemistry, computational science, physical chemistry or thermodynamics, biochemistry, and advanced calculus.

Admission to MEMP: All applicants to MEMP must also apply simultaneously to a collaborating graduate department at MIT or Harvard (see list below). Admission to MEMP or MEMP/BIG normally requires an affirmative assessment by both departmental and HST admissions committees (on rare occasions students who are exceptionally well qualified for the BIG program do not win acceptance into their chosen collaborating department. HST may choose to admit such individuals without a collaborating depart­ment, in which case HST will administer the doctoral qualifying exam). Students may apply to MEMP or MEMP/BIG through either MIT or Harvard or both.

Applying to MEMP through Harvard

Harvard collaborating departments include the following: Biophysics, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Physics. To apply to MEMP through Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, use the standard application avail­able from the Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences’ (GSAS) website. Submit one original application to the GSAS Admissions Office and a copy of the application, plus originals of transcripts, letters, and other supporting documentation, to HST Admissions, MIT E25-518, Cambridge, MA 02139.

Please note that although Harvard’s dead- line for graduate applications is January 2; HST’s application deadline for MEMP is December 15; all MEMP Harvard applica­tions must be received at HST by that date. 

Special Students

Courses offered by the SEAS and departments in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are open to students who hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, who are able to present evidence of fitness for admission at the graduate level, but who are registered as Special Students and are advised by the director of Special Students, GSAS, Holyoke Center 350, 1350 Massa­chusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-495-5392.

Special Students are not degree candi­dates. Credit for a limited number of accept­able half-courses can, however, be transferred into a degree program if the student is later admitted to graduate study. Special Student status ordinarily is limited to a maximum of two terms, with extension possible only by reapplication.

Further Information

Further information regarding programs of study, research, financial aid, and admis­sion may be obtained by writing directly to Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Academic Office, Pierce Hall 130, Cambridge, MA 02138; by calling 617-496-9410; by e-mailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or by visiting www.seas.harvard.edu. 

SEAS Supplemental Application

All applicants to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) must submit the Supplemental Application Form with their application. Your application will not be considered complete without this form.