Biology now produces more data than any lab can analyze by hand, and many of the most active research areas, from genomics to drug discovery, need people trained in both computing and the life sciences. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers a dedicated undergraduate major for this: Computer Science and Molecular Biology, known on campus as Course 6-7, with a one-year Master of Engineering (Course 6-7P) for its graduates. This guide explains what the program requires and how students use it, with one recent graduate’s path as an example.
What Course 6-7 is
Course 6-7 is a Bachelor of Science shared by MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6) and Department of Biology (Course 7). Like all MIT majors, it combines the General Institute Requirements (GIRs), which include science core subjects, eight HASS subjects and a laboratory requirement, with a departmental program. According to the MIT course catalog, the departmental program includes (MIT Course Catalog):
- Math and programming foundations: 6.100A Introduction to Computer Science Programming in Python, 6.1200 Mathematics for Computer Science and 6.C06 Linear Algebra and Optimization.
- Chemistry: 5.12 Organic Chemistry I and 5.601 Thermodynamics I.
- Laboratory: either 7.002 with 7.003 Applied Molecular Biology Laboratory, or 20.109 Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering.
- Three computer science subjects: 6.1010 Fundamentals of Programming, 6.1210 Introduction to Algorithms, and 6.3900 Introduction to Machine Learning (or the paired 6.C01/7.C01 machine learning subjects for molecular and cellular biology).
- Three biology subjects: 7.03 Genetics, 7.05 General Biochemistry and 7.06 Cell Biology.
- One computational biology subject, such as 6.8701 Computational Biology: Genomes, Networks, Evolution, 7.32 Systems Biology or 18.413 Introduction to Computational Molecular Biology.
- A communication-intensive subject such as 6.UAR Seminar in Undergraduate Advanced Research or 7.19 Communication in Experimental Biology.
- Two restricted electives from biology (for example immunology, human genetics and genomics, or the hallmarks of cancer), advanced AI and decision-making subjects (for example database systems or theory of computation), or computational biology (for example deep learning in the life sciences).
The Master of Engineering (Course 6-7P)
MIT’s MEng in Computer Science and Molecular Biology is open only to students who have received, or will receive at the same time, the Course 6-7 bachelor’s degree, so it works as a fifth year for MIT undergraduates rather than a program outside applicants can enter. Its requirements include a 24-unit thesis, a professional-perspective internship requirement, four graduate subjects and two mathematics electives (MIT Course Catalog, Course 6-7P). Students who want a research-focused graduate degree in the field from outside MIT would instead apply to graduate programs in computational biology or bioinformatics.
Example: from 6-7 to an MEng thesis on pregnancy outcomes
MIT News profiled Aria Eppinger, a Class of 2024 Course 6-7 graduate finishing her 6-7 MEng in spring 2025 (MIT News, May 9, 2025). Advised by Doug Lauffenburger, Ford Professor of Engineering in Biological Engineering, her thesis used polytope-fitting algorithms to study biological causes of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm birth and preeclampsia. Outside class she swam distance freestyle and breaststroke on MIT’s varsity swimming and diving team, served two terms as president of the MIT Tech Catholic Community, and cross-registered for intensive Italian at Harvard. After an internship in New York City the previous summer, she planned to work in New York after graduation.
Her path shows typical features of the major: research with faculty across departments (her advisor was in biological engineering, not in either home department), an industry internship, and the option of finishing a master’s in one extra year.
Applying to MIT as an international student
- Rankings (Forward Pathway database): No. 1 in the U.S. News 2027 national universities ranking, No. 1 in the QS World University Rankings 2027 and No. 2 in the THE World University Rankings 2027. See our U.S. college rankings.
- Admissions: MIT received 28,232 first-year applications for fall 2025 and admitted 1,284, an admission rate of 4.5% (IPEDS). Students apply to MIT, not to a major; they choose a major such as 6-7 later.
- International enrollment: In fall 2025 MIT enrolled 11,886 students, including 3,455 international students (529 of 4,535 undergraduates and 2,926 of 7,351 graduate students) (IPEDS).
- Cost: Undergraduate tuition and required fees were $62,396 for 2025–26 (IPEDS). For admissions requirements and financial aid policies for international applicants, see MIT Admissions.