Thesis
2025 Deadlines
January Thesis-Due to Department Second Friday in January
May Thesis-Due to the Department Second Friday in May
Summer Thesis- first Friday in August
All students in the MSRED program are required to submit a thesis for the degree. Thesis papers are public. All student theses are posted on the D-Space, MIT's digital repository. Theses are generally available 3-6 months after graduation.
While students normally begin to seriously explore possible thesis topics during the spring semester in the Thesis Prep course, registration for thesis and most of the thesis work is done during the summer term (June and July), or fall semester if a student has chosen to complete the 16-month option.
All students take Thesis Prep Course (11.499) during the spring term that covers topic selection, thesis proposals, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, MIT requirements and deadlines, as well as faculty and industry research interests.
If selecting to complete thesis requirement in the fall, please note that the tuition for fall term is higher than summer term.
The additional term may also have implications for your on-campus housing assignment.Summer Fieldwork for International Students
International students have the ability to participate in a summer internship in the US via an internship course elective which can be counted towards their degree requirements.Students who participate in the internship elective would register for the fieldwork course (11.962) during the summer semester and would be required to pay per-unit tuition fees. Thesis is considered full registration and is not subject to reduced tuition.
Students registering only for the internship course in the summer are eligible to pay the reduced, per-unit fee for the summer.