What should be in my application?

An application must be completed through the graduate school admissions website.

Note: The MS Thesis program does not offer direct entry. Students interested in the MS Thesis program should apply to the MS Professional program. If admitted, students can formally switch to the thesis program upon securing a thesis advisor. Also, the choice of focus area is not binding and is intended primarily to assist with application review and balancing student numbers in different areas.

An application fee of $60 for domestic applicants and $80 for international applicants must be paid at the time of application. 

The Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering understands that this application fee presents a challenge for some applicants. Our community is committed to providing educational opportunities for a diverse range of applicants and strives to waive application fees whenever possible. 

1. Graduate School fee waivers are available for participants in the following programs. If you are affiliated with one of these programs, please email proof of your affiliation to gradadm@colorado.edu before you apply to receive a waiver. 
   1. AmeriCorps (currently serving)
   2. Louis-Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP)
   3. McNair Scholars Program
   4. Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Scholars Program
   5. Peace Corps (currently serving)
   6. Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP)
   7. Teach for America
   8. Leadership Alliance
2. ​Members of the U.S. military will receive an automatic application fee waiver from the graduate school upon submission of the application.
3. Fee waivers are also available directly from the department for MS and PhD Candidates who are not eligible for the Graduate School fee waiver (see above for requirements for the Graduate School fee waiver); and are a U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, or DACA recipient; and meet any one of the following:
   1. The application fee is a financial hardship.
   2. You are a first-generation college student. 
   3. You are/were involved in any organization aimed at increasing access to higher education and/or improving the higher education experience for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Some examples of organizations that meet this requirement include:
      1. National Society for Black Engineers (NSBE) members/participants
      2. Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
      3. TRiO program participant
         1. ​CU Boulder Guardian Scholars Program
      4. GEM Fellowship applicant
      5. Bill and Melinda Gates Millenium Scholars
      6. CU Boulder’s SMART and/or STEM Routes program participant
   4. You are eligible for accommodations via the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
      1. Please note that students who chose not to utilize accommodations they were eligible for while an undergraduate are still eligible for a fee waiver.

To request a fee waiver from the department, please email an explanation or proof of your affiliation to megrad@colorado.edu before you apply. 

Please provide a complete resume or curriculum vitae (CV) detailing prior education, work and research experience, as well as honors, awards, publications, conference presentations and community engagement and outreach activities.

There is no minimum or maximum page/word length for the resume/CV but we usually recommend it being one to two pages. 

We invite you to provide a personal statement that describes your academic interests, prior professional experience and achievements, professional goals, and how the CU Boulder mechanical engineering MS degree will enable you to meet those goals. You may also wish to share additional information that you want the admissions committee to be aware of. A strong personal statement tells a story and contextualizes information on your resume/CV instead of repeating it.

If you are interested in the MS thesis degree, please also discuss your research experience and the faculty and research groups that interest you. Note that even though all MS applicants initially apply to our professional MS degree, your status will be updated to the MS thesis program once you secure a thesis advisor; this often happens in your first or second semester in our MS program. 

There is no minimum or maximum page/word length for the personal statement but we usually recommend it being one to two pages. 

Please provide unofficial transcripts from coursework at all post-secondary institutions (including community college courses, courses taken for college credit during high school and study abroad coursework, even if this coursework shows as transfer credit on another transcript). If you are offered admission and choose to accept our admission offer, you will then be required to provide official transcripts for all schools attended prior to the beginning of their first semester.

Please submit a minimum of two recommendation letters; you may opt to submit a third letter, but it is not required for admission. The online application will prompt you to provide the names and contact information for recommendation letter writers. The strongest letters come from instructors/professors, work supervisors, research advisors, and/or others who can provide detailed comments on your potential to succeed in graduate-level engineering coursework and, for MS thesis-interested students, research.

If you are an international student, you submit unofficial or official TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo scores. If you are offered admission and wish to join our graduate program, you will be required to provide official language scores in order to be issued an I-20 and apply for a visa.

The University of Colorado Boulder institution code is 4841. 

The language requirement is waived (not required) for international students:

1. whose native language is English, OR
2. who have completed at least one year of full-time study at a U.S. institution (or at an institution in a country where English is the native language) at the time of submission or within two years from the desired admission term, OR 
3. who are a citizen of one of the countries listed on the Graduate School English Proficiency Requirements webpage.