Course 6 MEng enrollment increased by 41.4% from 2016 to 2025
Enrollment peaked at 363 in 2024, then dropped to 321 in 2025 – a 11.6% drop
Vivian Hir–The Tech
From 2016 to 2025, Course 6 MEng enrollment increased by 41.4%, from 227 to 321 students, according to enrollment data from the MIT Registrar’s Office. However, enrollment dropped from 363 in 2024 to 321 in 2025, amounting to a 11.6% decrease.
The MEng program allows MIT undergraduates who major in Course 6 (Computer Science) to receive a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years. Degrees that fall under the MEng program include Course 6-P (6-1, 6-3, 6-4, 6-5), interdisciplinary computer science tracks (6-7, 6-9, 6-14), and the internship-based Course 6-PA.
Since funding for the MEng program is not guaranteed, students often get funded by holding a teaching assistant or research assistant position. These appointments only last for one term, and students must reapply or renew their appointments for the following term.
Besides slight fluctuations from 2020 to 2022, MEng enrollment steadily increased from 2016 to 2024. The most significant increase happened from 2022 to 2024, climbing from 263 in 2022 to 317 in 2023 — a 20.5% increase. In 2024, MEng enrollment peaked at 363 students. In 2025, however, the number fell to 321, which is similar to MEng enrollment in 2023.
The number of undergraduate students who declared Course 6 as their primary major has also steadily increased, from 1,270 in 2016 to 1,482 in 2025, a 16.7% rise. From 2023 to 2025, however, the number declined from 1,544 to 1,482, a 4.0% decrease.
The overall growth in MEng enrollment seems to stem not only from the increase in undergraduates majoring in computer science, but also from the introduction of new Course 6 S.B. and MEng degrees in the last ten years. The Course 6-14 S.B. was founded in 2017, followed by its respective MEng in 2022, while the Course 6-9 S.B. and MEng were established in 2019. More recently, the Course 6-4 S.B. and MEng was created in 2022. Notably, according to a Business Insider article, this significant increase in MEng enrollment may correlate with the recent economic downturn in the technology sector, which has caused some recent computer science graduates to return to university for a master’s degree.
Meanwhile, the 5-10% funding cuts for MEng students enrolled in the 2025-2026 academic year may have played a role in the decrease in enrollment from 2024 to 2025. In spring 2025, President Kornbluth implemented these cuts across all academic and administrative units due to reductions in federal funding.
According to EECS Undergraduate Officer Katrina LaCurts SM ’10, PhD ’14, the department is not sure what factors have contributed to fluctuations in MEng enrollment from 2016 to 2025. “It may be that we just had a large burst of MEng students in [2024-2025] that’s calming down,” LaCurts wrote.
Despite budget reductions, students are still pursuing the MEng degree this academic year. Liane Xu ’25, a Course 6-4 MEng student, pursued a MEng to gain more research experience after joining the MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab in the spring of her senior year. She hopes that the extra year will help her decide on further graduate studies.
Ananth Shyamal ’25, a Course 6-7 MEng student, considered the MEng a productive option to spend a gap year before his MD-PhD program. “I wanted to focus on research during [my] gap year, specifically improving my ML skills,” Shyamal wrote. “Also, being at MIT around many of my undergrad friends [sounded] nice.”
Jay Lu ’25 aimed to use her fifth year as a Course 6-9 MEng student to explore opportunities at MIT that she didn’t have time to explore beforehand. “I wanted some more time here to take some extra classes, have a research project I can take ownership of, and try things I didn’t get to do as an undergrad,” Lu wrote.