Energy Science, Technology & Policy

There are four degree options with different time lengths.

The EST&P and EST&P-Applied Study (APS) degrees are completed in two semesters (one academic year) of full-time study. Students in the EST&P degree can start in either the fall or spring semester. Students in the EST&P-Applied Study degree may only start in the spring semester.

The EST&P-Advanced Study (ADS) and EST&P-Applied Advanced Study (AAS) degrees require three semesters of full-time study to complete. Studnets in these degrees may start in either the fall or spring semester.

Master's students must register for a full-time course load (36 or more units) in each semester.  The selection of the degree must be made at the time of application, and you will be notified of the admission decision for the specific degree to which you applied.

A note for international students who are considering a Curricular Practical Training (CPT) internship:  EST&P-APS and AAS degree students admitted in either semester are eligible for CPT in the summer following their spring semester. Such students will be required to register for a minimum of 2 units of Internship (39-661) during their CPT internship. Pre-completion OPT is also available as an alternative to CPT; it does not require summer course registration and can be carried out after completion of two semesters.

EST&P tuition is charged at the standard College of Engineering (Carnegie Institute of Technology) graduate student rate, and students are billed each semester for one-half of the academic year graduate tuition. The current CIT graduate tuition and fees are posted on the HUB website Graduate Tuition & Fees page. An EST&P or EST&P-APS student who completes the program in two semesters will pay for one academic year of tuition and EST&P-AS or EST&P-AAS student will pay for three semesters. Tuition changes before each fall semester, usually increasing by a few percent.

The full cost of attendance is estimated for CIT by including activity & technology fees, transportation, off-campus housing, health insurance, etc. on the Hub website Itemized CIT Cost of Attendance page.

EST&P alumni work in various positions of responsibility in one of the many energy-related job markets, including traditional utility companies and energy suppliers, alternative and renewable energy companies, power generation and distribution equipment companies, energy intensive manufacturing and operating companies, consulting companies, NGOs, non-profits, government, and academic institutions, and in areas all around the world. Approx. 10% of our alumni have gone on to pursue PhD's at CMU and other universities.

Visit our Alumni page to learn more about EST&P graduates.

The Carnegie Mellon Career and Professional Development Center supports EST&P students with career and job search assistance, and they also offer engineering student placement data.

You will find data here from EST&P alumni, as well as, from other Engineering programs and departments. Placement survey data is available from CPDC. To see EST&P outcomes from 2019-2022 use College/School = College of Engineering and Academic Department = Energy Science, Technology & Policy .

A list of alumni and recent news of them appears on the EST&P Alumni page. Visit our LinkedIn pages for other news of alumni.

The Carnegie Mellon Career and Professional Development Center (CPDC) has a team of Career Consultants dedicated to support the engineering graduate student population. EST&P and CPDC work closely to support the professional development of students, including the search and acquisition of jobs / internships. Consultants provide job search support before and during the program, and also to the alumni. They have created a novel career service model specific to the needs of engineering master’s students.

Students who are most successful in their career pursuits actively engage with their consultants and the resources available at Carnegie Mellon University, including numerous job fairs and employer events.

International students interested in pursuing career opportunities in the United States, should be prepared to conduct a rigorous job search, meet regularly with their career consultants and leverage the resources available to conduct both an on and off campus search. 

For students on an F-1 visa, visit our Working in the US webpage for more info.

Yes, there are project and independent study opportunities in all EST&P MS degrees.  

The EST&P and EST&P-APS degrees are completed in two semesters of academic study, with a 48-51 unit course schedule each semester. A maximum of 12 units of Independent Study or Master's Project coursework can be applied towards the EST&P degree in partial fulfillment of the Breadth Elective requirement. 

Students in the EST&P-ADS and EST&P-AAS degrees have more opportunities for project work during their degree durations, and students who choose to do Energy Projects must complete a minimum of 36-units of project intensive coursework and/or faculty supervised project work. 

Students do not normally have an opportunity to obtain a research or teaching assistantship, which might defer the cost of tuition. Some students can have part-time (< 10 hours usually) teaching or research positions, which are not program or degree related.

The EST&P Admissions Committee does not enforce a specific hard-cut-off number for the undergraduate GPA. However, a GPA of 3.0 or above is preferred. 

Undergraduate performance across technical courses and answers to essay questions are all reviewed carefully by the admissions committee. Letters of recommendation, as well as, internship and work experience are also considered as part of the overall applications review by the admissions committee. 

All international applicants are expected to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), IELTS, or DuoLingo English Test if your native language (the "mother tongue" of your country) is not English. Applicants who are non-native English speakers can receive a requirement waiver if they have or will complete a four-year undergraduate program at a university within the United States or a native English speaking country before the start of the first term they are enrolled. 

TOEFL scores must be sent to EST&P by the testing company to be considered official. CMU's code: 2074

If submitting IELTS scores:
IELTS scores can be sent electronically to:
Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering
431 Hamerschlag Drive
Ansys Hall Suite 250
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
---Email energy@andrew.cmu with your TRF No.
--- Do not have paper IELTS scores mailed

If submitting a DuoLingo English Test (DET), please send your scores to:
Carnegie Mellon University – College of Engineering 

If you previously obtained a four year degree at a US institution, you may submit an old version of your TOEFL/IELTS scores for the application process. You may be asked to participate in a skype interview depending on your application packet and admission decision. Advanced approval of this exception is required, please email energy@andrew.cmu.edu to request a TOEFL/IELTS/DET exemption. 

EST&P can expedite admission for CMU undergraduates / alumni.  We ask such students to complete an abbreviated application and submit two letters of recommendation (with simplified process for CMU faculty recommendations). 

EST&P does not offer a BS degree so we cannot offer you a formal Integrated Master's/Bachelor's (IMB) degree option. However, we can discuss with partner departments whether courses taken as an undergraduate may count towards a graduate degree.

Interested CMU undergraduates are encouraged to make and appointment and meet with an EST&P advisor for more details on expediting the application process and course counting.

The EST&P degree was developed as a resident instruction program to be completed in two or three semesters of full-time study. However, part time study is permitted for local US residents, and as permitted by their visa status for non-residents. Please be advised that only a limited number of courses within the program are available in the evenings.

Students taking less than 36 units during a semester will be billed at the College of Engineering per-unit part-time tuition rate. 

Up to 12 units of graduate work completed at other universities, with a grade point average in each course of 3.0 or better, may be considered for transfer credit, provided that such course work is part of a graduate program leading to the degree sought.

Such transfer credit is not granted prior to admission to EST&P and must be approved after the student has satisfactorily completed at least 36 units of graduate courses at Carnegie Mellon. Transfer credit requests will be handled on a case by case basis, with special consideration to whether the transfer credits can be applied toward the EST&P degree requirements.

Approval of transfer credits to CMU is no guarantee that courses can count towards the EST&P 96-unit requirement, and transfer credits will not substitute for EST&P’s core classes.

EST&P students most frequently choose a engineering concentration that either (1) aligns directly with their engineering bachelor’s degree work or (2) aligns with their reasons for pursuing a master's degree.

For example, students with BS degrees in the sciences may choose an allied engineering discipline: a BS in Environmental Sciences aligns well with the Civil & Environmental Engineering concentration; a BS in Chemistry aligns well with the Chemical Engineering or Materials Science & Engineering concentrations.

Some applicant will are interested in changing engineering disciplines from their undergraduate major, and this is acceptable. For example, a B.S. Chemical Engineer may choose an EST&P concentration in Mechanical Engineering. The admission committee reviews such requests carefully to determine if the applicant has either sufficient coursework or employment experience to make such a shift realistic. EST&P students take the majority of their courses together with the graduate engineering MS and PhD student body at CMU, and must be able to perform at that level to succeed.

We can advise applicants on their likelihood of succes in a specific engineering concentration.

Alyssa Bernens, the Academic Program Manager, will be assigned as students academic advisor.
For general advising questions you can e-mail Alyssa.

Registration processes are detailed, and information given below describes the process.

Once you have set up your email and password you will also have access to Student Information Online (SIO), where course registration occurs.  Your assigned registration time will be listed when you log-in to SIO.

Courses:
The CMU schedule of classes can be found here.

Advising information and course examples are available for EST&P engineering concentration and breadth elective courses.

1.  Plan your course schedule
2.  Review your planned schedule with your advisor
3.  Check your registration time on SIO
4.  Register for classes

To view an example of these 4 easy steps, go here. 

*   Do not have a registration hold
*   Meet necessary pre-requisites
*   Intend to register for any necessary co-requisites
*   Understand any course messages
*   Course reservations have not changed

Reminders:
-If you created a “planned schedule” in SIO, this does NOT register you for classes.  You will still have to go in an officially register for the classes that you wish to take.

-Some courses have waitlists, and the earlier you register the better chances are of getting into a course.  There are many options of courses to take.

-It is ideal to have your full or part time number of units registered for by early August.  This is because the fall tuition due date is August 15^th.  You will need a minimum of 36 units to be considered a full time student.  Full time tuition is a flat rate, and part time students are billed on a per unit basis.

Guidelines to keep in mind:
-The maximum number of units you can register for is 54.

-Course numbering:  the first two digits are the department, and the next three numbers are the course number.  Generally graduate courses have course numbers 600 and above.

About waitlists:
-When registering for the CORE energy courses you will be automatically put on the waitlist. Alyssa will move you off the waitlist and register you for the course. This is to ensure that all EST&P students are enrolled in the course before it is opened up to other students.

-Registration for breadth electives:
We don’t have any influence for registration outside the college of engineering (Tepper/business, Heinz/policy, School of Computer Science, etc).

Alyssa needs to pre-approve all breadth electives.
For some examples of breadth electives that were approved in the past, go here. You can assume if a course was approved in the past, it will be approved again.

Keep in mind:  You are limited in the number of undergraduate units that you can take, the course needs to relate to energy and/or supportive of your career goals and the concept of breadth electives is to take courses outside of your concentration area (either other graduate level engineering courses, and a limited number of either policy, business, computer science, etc courses). You are restricted to 18 units of non-engineering breadth electives.

-Registration for engineering concentration courses:  Follow the list of courses for your concentration here.

If you find yourself on the waitlist for any of your engineering concentration courses, please let us know which one(s) and we can advocate on your behalf to get you enrolled into those courses.  Please e-mail Alyssa. 

About Deadlines:
You can add/drop courses during the first week of classes (for mini courses) and up to 10 days (for semester long courses) to finalize your schedule should you find something especially interesting that was not included in preregistration.  All the engineering courses follow the university wide academic calendar, dates found here, but Heinz (policy), Tepper (business) and computer science courses often have their own unique calendars different from the main university one.

Registering for Tepper courses (business): If you decide to go with a Tepper class, please be aware that the Tepper school manages their own registration independent of the SIO system, so you will have to wait to pre-register for this class until Tepper opens up some of their elective classes to non-business-majors (for the Fall term this will be in mid-July). We will send out an email notice once this has opened up, complete with more detailed instructions. See Student Resources page on the Tepper registration process.

No, EST&P is a coursework based professional master's program and does not require a thesis.

Yes, all EST&P Master of Science degrees are considered STEM designated degree programs.

For more information about STEM:  https://www.ed.gov/stem and https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/students-and-employment/stem-opt

CMU does not provide on-campus housing for graduate students, but does provide resources to assist you in finding off-campus housing. Information about off-campus housing options and things to do before you sign a rental agreement are provided here: https://www.cmu.edu/graduate/incoming-students/after-you-arrive/housing.html 

Housing Services offers additional resources for searching for off-campus housing on their websites: https://www.cmu.edu/housing/our-communities/find-housing/off-campus-housing/index.html and https://offcampus.housing.cmu.edu 

For international students, OIE provides additional information on housing in the Pittsburgh area. 

Yes, all full-time students must have medical insurance that meets the University's requirements and must complete the online immunization form and tuberculosis (TB) screening questionnaire, documenting the required immunizations before arrival on campus.

Immunization requirements and health insurance requirements for new students can be found on the University Health Services website.

University Health Services is happy to assist with further questions:
Immunization information: health@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-2157 (option 4)
Insurance information: shinsure@andrew.cmu.edu or 412-268-2157 (option 3)