[wbraun]

The MIT 5th year masters program for EECS requires a thesis and for you to find a faculty thesis advisor that is separate from your academic advisor.

[seanmcdirmid]

Ya, I forgot that point. But it is usually one semester of classes + one semester of writing a thesis (not sure what MIT does these days, I think this is what UCLA does), which isn't the usual one year of courses + one year of thesis writing.