Guidelines Regarding the 2-A Major

For 2-A Degree Requirements, please consult the MIT Catalog.

A concentration is 6-8 subjects (72 units or more) that form a topic within the field of engineering.  Your concentration should make up a single cohesive topic (not a group of topics), and the relationship between your topic and subjects should be logical and obvious.  Your topic should be simple enough that you can describe it easily in a short paragraph (as part of your 2A concentration proposal form).

If you aren’t sure what you’d like to do for your concentration, it can be helpful to look at the Tracks section.  Your concentration does not have to be in one of the listed tracks; the tracks listed there are simply popular enough that they have a description.  If you choose one of these tracks, you are not limited to taking the specific subjects that are listed in the description. You may include any subjects that have a logical and obvious connection to the track and are of interest to you.

Once you have a concentration, then you just need to select 72 units or more of courses that fit within your selected topic (from any department).  Guidelines for the 2A degree can be found on the Tracks page.  Your engineering content will be assessed by the 2A Coordinator – you will need at least 72 units of engineering content.  If the courses that you have selected are not fully engineering subjects, then partial units may be assigned as “engineering units”.  In this case, you may need to include extra engineering subjects in order to make sure that you have the required engineering content.

You are allowed to use additional second-level subjects as part of your concentration (or as extra engineering subject), if you choose to take more the two required.  Simply include these courses in the concentration section of your 2A concentration proposal form.

Once you are ready to discuss your 2A concentration, or if you have any questions,  you can contact Prof. Sangbae Kim at sangbae@mit.edu.  You are also welcome to talk to Emma Dunn in 1-110, emmadunn@mit.edu. If you already know what subjects you are going to take for your concentration, then you can submit your 2A concentration proposal form .