Earn your master's in aerospace engineering at Maryland

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The Master of Science degree is awarded after the completion of 30 credit hours with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Specific requirements may vary depending on whether a student pursues the thesis or non-thesis option.

  • 24 credits (eight courses) and six research credits
  • Minimum of 12 credits (four courses) in main study discipline (600 level or above)
  • Maximum of nine credits (three courses) at 400 level, of which not more than six credits may be department courses
  • At least six research credits for master's thesis research.
  • Oral Thesis Defense approved by a thesis committee of three faculty members
  • 30 credits (ten courses)
  • Minimum of 12 credits (four courses) in main study discipline (600 level or above)
  • Maximum of nine credits (three courses) at 400 level, of which not more than six credits may be department courses
  • Scholarly paper written by student under the supervision of a faculty member, and reviewed by a committee consisting of two faculty members

The Aerospace Engineering Graduate Program encourages applicants with other related engineering backgrounds to apply to our program. The Graduate Admissions Committee may recommend that an incoming student take selected undergraduate courses before the core courses.

The Graduate School requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA in all courses for credit since enrollment. Prerequisite courses are listed to assure that students have the necessary academic background before enrolling in a given course. The ENAE 283 course (Introduction to Aerospace Systems) is required for students without any aerospace engineering background.

  1. ENAE283 Introduction to Aerospace Systems

    Prerequisite: ENES 102, PHYS 161 and MATH 141
    Co-requisite: PHYS 260 and PHYS 261

    Introduction to airplanes and space vehicles as aerospace systems. Fundamentals that describe these systems. Elements of aerodynamics, airfoils, and wings. Airplane performance, stability, and control. Aircraft and rocket propulsion. Fundamentals of orbital motion. Aspects of vehicle conceptual design.

  2. ENAE311 Aerodynamics I

    Prerequisite: ENAE202, ENAE283, ENES220, MATH241, MATH246, MATH461, PHYS270, and PHYS271
    Co-requisite: ENME232 or ENME320

    Fundamentals of aerodynamics. Elements of compressible flow. Normal and oblique shock waves. Flows through nozzles, diffusers and wind tunnels. Elements of the method of characteristics and finite difference solutions for compressible flows. Aspects of hypersonic flow.

  3. ENAE414 Aerodynamics II

    Prerequisite: ENAE 311

    Aerodynamics of inviscid incompressible flows. Aerodynamic forces and moments. Fluid statics/buoyancy force. Vorticity, circulation, the stream function and the velocity potential. Bernoulli's and Laplace's equations. Flows in low speed wind tunnels and airspeed measurement. Potential flows involving sources and sinks, doublets, and vortices. Development of the theory of airfoils and wings.

All requirements for the M.S. degree must be completed within a five-year period. This time limit applies to any transfer work from other institutions to be included in a student's program. Students who fail to complete all requirements for the degree following the granting of a time extension by the department may seek an additional extension by petitioning the department. If the department supports the request, the administrator of graduate admissions and records may grant up to a one-year additional extension.

Transfer of Credit

A maximum of six semester hours of graduate course work taken at other regionally accredited institutions prior to matriculation in the Graduate School, or afterward, may be applied toward the master's degree. The course must have been taken within the time limits for completing the master's degree; the graduate director must agree that the specific courses are appropriate to and acceptable in aerospace engineering. The student is responsible for providing an official transcript of this work to the Graduate School.

Due to academic and procedural differences between U.S. regionally accredited and foreign institutions, credit from foreign universities is not normally acceptable for transfer.

The grades on transfer work do not affect the grade point average of the work taken at the University of Maryland. A grade of A from another institution cannot balance a C in a course here.

Transfer work cannot be used to satisfy the requirements for upper-level courses in a student's program. The required credits of 600 level or above must be part of the work taken at the University of Maryland.

No credit transfer will be allowed for any courses which have been used in fulfillment of the requirements of any other degree. No credit will be granted for correspondence courses.

The request for transfer credit shall be submitted to the Graduate School for approval at the earliest possible time. The candidate is subject to final examination by this institution in all work offered for the M.S. degree.

A maximum of six semester hours of graduate course work taken at other regionally accredited institutions prior to matriculation in the Graduate School, or afterward, may be applied toward the master's degree. The course must have been taken within the time limits for completing the master's degree; the graduate director must agree that the specific courses are appropriate to and acceptable in aerospace engineering. The student is responsible for providing an official transcript of this work to the Graduate School.

Due to academic and procedural differences between U.S. regionally accredited and foreign institutions, credit from foreign universities is not normally acceptable for transfer.

The grades on transfer work do not affect the grade point average of the work taken at the University of Maryland. A grade of A from another institution cannot balance a C in a course here.

Transfer work cannot be used to satisfy the requirements for upper-level courses in a student's program. The required credits of 600 level or above must be part of the work taken at the University of Maryland.

No credit transfer will be allowed for any courses which have been used in fulfillment of the requirements of any other degree. No credit will be granted for correspondence courses.

The request for transfer credit shall be submitted to the Graduate School for approval at the earliest possible time. The candidate is subject to final examination by this institution in all work offered for the M.S. degree.


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