The Practice School Experience

The David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice at MIT is like no other educational experience. Practice School internship replaces the research thesis required in conventional master’s programs. However, this is NOT a conventional co-op assignment. No other engineering internship requires such intense effort on multiple company projects at an advanced technical level. No other program challenges its students to hone their interpersonal and communications skills to this degree. No other program has the day-to-day interaction with company personnel and management teams. The rewards for students are great.

At a glance brochure (pdf for a download)

How the Practice School Program Works

Student Categories in Practice School

“Fifth year”: MIT S.B. students accepted into Practice School
“Terminal Master’s”: B.S. students who apply to MIT solely to attend Practice School
Ph.D./Sc.D. or Ph.D.CEP: students in MIT doctoral programs

Fifth year and terminal Master’s students can typically complete the M.S.CEP degree in one calendar year.

M.S.CEP Degree Requirements
The degree requires two semesters of coursework. All chemical engineering graduate students at MIT share the same core curriculum, which covers:

Thermodynamics
Transport phenomena
Reactor engineering
Systems engineering

Once coursework wraps up, students familiarize themselves with the available stations before submitting their ranked preferences. Placement decisions take into account each student’s interests, the program’s learning goals, the needs of individual projects, and how many students a station can accommodate. Students relocate to their assigned Practice School Stations, which are based at host companies. Groups of six to ten students remain at a given station for two months before rotating to a second station for another two-month stint (during the shorter summer term, one of the two stations runs for just one month instead). While at a station, students are divided into smaller teams of two or three to tackle projects that last about a month each. Over the course of the program, students work alongside a range of different classmates and take a turn leading a team once or twice.

During Practice School, students are not company employees; they are enrolled in a course and are graded on their performance. The MIT Station Director evaluates each student’s technical ability, communication skills, leadership, and professionalism. The Director also helps prepare the projects, guides the students’ work, and assists in locating resources and solving problems.

During the course of each project, student teams are required to prepare three formal talks, a short scope of work, and a final report documenting the work, all within a tightly controlled, four-week time period.

Why the Practice School?

Real projects, real stakes: Students solve actual operating challenges inside plants and labs, not textbook problems.
Leadership from day one: Students lead teams, manage deadlines, and present findings directly to company management.
Fully funded: Tuition is covered during station residency and students receive a graduate stipend throughout.
Global exposure: Stations across Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, and the US.
The experience is rewarding but very intense, requiring organizational skills, hard work, long hours and, of course, technical ability.
Students gain valuable skills working as part of a team, defining a problem, managing resources to achieve objectives, interacting with company personnel, drawing conclusions, and communicating their work.

Project Structure

Host companies pose project topics, and students pursue them using company resources at an intensive pace with ambitious objectives.

Types of Projects
Topics cover a surprisingly wide array within even a single company, including:

Solving an operating problem in the plant
Identifying production limitations in a process
Preliminary design and cost estimation for a new process
Developing a new engineering method for a specific task

Methods & Tools
Depending on the project, students may be:

Conducting laboratory work
Surveying technical literature
Developing mathematical models
Analyzing production data
Deploying computational tools
Interviewing plant operators or reviewing plant procedures

What Students Develop
Working on projects builds a broad range of skills:

Technical problem-solving
Planning and organization
Teamwork and leadership
Oral and written communication of technical material

In short, students will be exercising full skills as a chemical engineer.

Who should apply?

Housing and Costs

Diversion

Diversion & Recreation
Practice School isn’t all work. Weekends offer a break from the intensity of project work, with activities shaped by station location, class preferences, and season.

Activities
Recreational options have included:

Outdoor sports: skiing, hiking, canoeing, rafting, bicycling, windsurfing, deep-sea fishing
Touring local attractions, such as a Kyoto shrine or a European castle
Casual social activities like organizing a soccer game or trying a new restaurant

Culture & Camaraderie
Students experience the cultural diversity of their host location through local food, art, and landscape. This close personal and professional interaction typically forges a unique bond among students and directors, one that lasts long after the program ends.

Contact

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