Courses

The MIT-WHOI Joint Program is one of the premier marine science graduate programs in the world. It draws on the complementary strengths and approaches of two great institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Two course catalogs have been provided as references. One, the WHOI catalog (see Related File), is a listing of courses offered at WHOI and at MIT, many specifically for the MIT-WHOI Joint Program. All courses listed are graduate-level courses. This is not a full listing of courses available to Joint Program students; they are encouraged to take other courses not listed in the catalog.

The other course catalog listed is the MIT course catalog. It is a listing of all graduate and undergraduate courses offered at MIT during the academic year.

In accordance with MIT's numbering system, each department is assigned a course number. Courses starting with a 7 are in the area of biological oceanography; those starting with a 12 are in the area of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences. Other WHOI affiliations with MIT are in course 1 – civil and environmental engineering, course 2 – mechanical/oceanographic engineering, course 6 – electrical engineering and computer science, and course 16 - aeronautics and astronautics.

Units are assigned to each course. Units are determined by adding the number of class hours, lab hours and expected homework hours per week.

Questions regarding courses, registration, and class schedules can be directed to the WHOI Registrar.

For students who want to take courses at Harvard, please see the MIT cross-registration page for instructions about cross-registering.