What you need to know

The Subject Listing & Schedule is your source for information on classes offered at MIT. In addition to subject descriptions, listings include the current schedule, subject level, units, and pre- and corequisites.

Subject levels

U or G indicates undergraduate or graduate level subjects.

  • Undergraduate students — you will not receive graduate credit for G level subjects. Your transcript will always reflect U-level credit.
  • Graduate students — you will receive N-level credit for any undergraduate subjects. N-level subjects cannot be used to fulfill your graduate degree requirements, but letter grades are calculated in your GPA.
  • Graduate students — H-level designations have been discontinued. If you have already taken a mix of G and H units, degree audits have been adjusted to combine them and display your total units.

Credit

One MIT unit is approximately equal to 14 hours of work per term. The Subject Listing displays units for each subject as a series of three numbers (e.g., 3-2-7). The numbers added together (3+2+7) equal the total credit for the subject (12). In order, the three numbers represent:

  • units assigned for lectures and recitations.
  • units assigned to laboratory, design, or field work.
  • units for outside preparation.

Some subject listings contain “units arranged” instead of a series of numbers. This indicates that you and your instructor have agreed upon the amount of work you will do and have adjusted the credit accordingly.

We cannot offer official conversions of MIT units to different credit systems. However, we suggest the following calculation:

  • Three MIT units is approximately equal to one "semester hour" or credit.
  • A 12-unit MIT subject translates to four semester hours or credits.