The distinction between departments, schools, graduate fields and Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) majors can get a little confusing at Cornell; a preliminary explanation is in order. M.S./Ph.D. students at Cornell are officially in the Graduate School, while Master of Engineering students are actually in the M.Eng. degree program that is run by the Office of Research, Graduate Studies, and Professional Education of the College of Engineering.
There are twelve schools/departments in the College of Engineering: Applied and Engineering Physics, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, Earth and Atmospheric Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Operations Research and Information Engineering, and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.
M.Eng. degree majors are, strictly speaking, different from
the schools and departments. For M.Eng. students, there
are 15 possible majors; Mechanical Engineering and
Aerospace Engineering, for example, are distinct
M.Eng. majors. There is also an M.Eng.
degree in Systems Engineering, although this is not a
department/ school in the College of Engineering. The M.
Eng. Program also allows students to supplement their
field curriculum with a ``program option." Students who
chose a program option enroll in courses that satisfy
elective requirements. The program options offered are
Bioengineering, Financial Engineering, Manufacturing,
Engineering Management, and Systems Engineering. Each
M.Eng. degree has a program director that typically comes
from the associated department/school.
There are a large number of graduate fields for M.S./Ph.D. students in the Graduate School at Cornell. There are actually 93 major fields and 12 minor-only fields. Of these about 15 may be said to be engineering-related. These graduate fields, like M.Eng. degrees, need not be the same as the schools/departments in the College of Engineering. For instance, one graduate field is Applied Mathematics, which is associated with the Center for Applied Mathematics (CAM). The graduate fields of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering are distinct, though they are both affiliated with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The available options for different M.Eng. degrees change frequently, so it is best to check the department websites for the most current information on the current program options.
The sections in this chapter provide a brief description of each of the departments/schools/fields at Cornell University that are related to engineering. Graduate students from the specific department or field have supplied much of this information. If you find that this description is lacking in any way, please submit your suggestions and corrections to egsa@cornell.edu for inclusion in the next version of the handbook.
For general information about the College of Engineering, see CLICK HERE.
For general information about the Graduate School go to
CLICK HERE.