The Master of Science (SM) degree in Music Technology and Computation is designed to be completed in two semesters and is only available to MIT students who complete their undergraduate degree and wish to stay for one additional year of graduate study. One semester of fellowship funding is automatically awarded to all students admitted to the program. See below for more information about funding.

Candidates apply in the Fall semester of their senior year. Admission decisions are sent by the end of January and program study begins the following fall.

The application portal is now open! See below for the general application materials you will need to supply.

You can fill out this interest form to receive notifications as new information becomes available.

General Requirements

Students considering the SM degree should already have a strong background in both music and computation, most likely having already taken undergraduate courses in music, computer science, and engineering at MIT. In order to have enough time to complete a meaningful research project, we highly recommend students to have taken at least 12 units (ideally 24 units) of graduate coursework towards this degree by the end of their senior year.

The SM degree requires 68 units of graduate credit and 24 units of thesis credit, as detailed in the degree requirements below. None of these units can double-count towards any undergraduate requirement.

Once admitted, students should contact their assigned Music Technology advisor and begin planning for their thesis project. We highly recommend that students make significant progress on their thesis proposal (a roughly 10-page document) during the summer before the program officially begins and dedicate all of Independent Activities Period (IAP) to their thesis project. While the normal deadline for finishing a thesis is mid-May of the spring semester, students who finish all of their coursework but need additional time to complete their thesis may petition for a summer extension until mid-August with no need to pay additional tuition.

Funding

All students accepted to the program receive one semester of fellowship funding, which includes the cost of tuition, health benefits, and a standard stipend for living expenses. Paying for the remaining semester is the student’s responsibility. The fellowship is typically awarded in the second semester. Thus, a funding plan for the first semester must be presented during the application process. Other than self-funding, options for funding the first semester include loans, Teaching Assistantships (TAs), Research Assistantships (Ras), or other fellowships (either internal to MIT or external). A few TAs are available for Music Technology classes, but most must be secured from other departments. The fellowship may be awarded in a student’s first semester only if second semester funding is guaranteed (like a TA appointment). MIT does not offer need-based scholarships to graduate students.

Other funding options are listed below for convenience. Some may not apply in all cases. There may be additional opportunities not listed here.

• RAships from EECS groups may be advertised and be found on the EECS Opportunities List.
• The School of Engineering offers a few competitive fellowships.
• OGE lists a few external fellowships (MIT administered, Federal, Featured External, Other External)
• MIT’s Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) offers some design fellowships.

Degree Requirements

As a general overview, the SM degree requires:

• 21M.590 Colloquium in Music Technology (2 units, 1 each semester)
• 21M.595 Music Technology and Computation Research Seminar (6 units, 3 each semester)
• 21M.THG Directed Research and Thesis in Music Technology and Computation (24 units) 
• 60 units (e.g., 5 x 12-units) of graduate classes related to music technology or approved electives

View the full degree requirements and course options.

For students who have already completed 12 units towards this degree, they will most likely take two classes in the fall and two classes in the spring. For students who have already completed 24 units towards this degree, they will most likely take two classes in the fall and one class in the spring; thus, allowing more time to concentrate on their thesis.

Thesis

Students applying for the SM degree write a research statement that expounds on the music technology research areas that they would like to pursue. Students should become familiar with the current Music Technology faculty and their areas of interest. Admitted students are then assigned a faculty member to be their thesis advisor. Our current Music Technology thesis advisors are:

• Eran Egozy: interactive music, music gaming, audience participation, and music education systems
• Ian Hattwick: digital instrument design, hardware and sensing, laptop ensembles
• Anna Huang: artificial intelligence, machine learning, human-computer interaction as related to generative music systems and Human-AI creative partnerships
• Mark Rau: instrument acoustics and measurement, physical modeling synthesis, audio signal processing, real-time digital audio effects

Application

To start an application to the Master of Science (SM), please visit https://apply.mit.edu/apply. The deadline to submit your application is December 23, 2024.

The following is required of all students applying for the SM degree:

• Your unofficial transcript, which should include:
  • A list of your undergraduate major(s), minors(s), and HASS concentration.
  • We recommend a minimum overall GPA of 4.3 by the end of your junior year.
• A description of your experience as a musician, including all music classes taken and extra-curricular musical activities.
• Two letters of recommendation.
• A resume or CV.
• A per-semester coursework plan, showing which courses you have taken/will take to complete your degree requirements. Note that some required courses have prerequisites. 
• A description of your research and (if applicable) teaching experience, such as
  • participation in UROPs or research-based internships
  • working as a lab assistant, teaching assistant, or grading assistant
  • music technology-related projects
• A one-page research statement describing what you want to work on and why. You should include specific thesis project ideas (one or more, if you are excited about more than one idea) and which faculty you think could advise you. This site can help guide you on how to get started, though we do not expect a full Ph.D.-level research statement. 
• An optional supplemental information statement describing any additional information or extenuating circumstances.
• A plan for how you will fund your first semester in the program. If you are self-funding or already have funding, that is acceptable. If you don’t have a funding commitment right now, but think you will, please describe how that might happen. For example, what steps have you taken to secure a TAship? Which other fellowships or grants have you applied for? And so forth…