nubswitstubs

In terms of durability, you can't do much better (if at all) than Mil-SPEC Thinkpads. I would suggest waiting until you know what specific project you're working on and what your computing needs will be before purchasing a laptop, though. You might even find out that your adviser will provide funding for it.

I can't really imagine a scenario where living in Ithaca would prevent you from attending conferences. To me, it's more of a lifestyle/environment factor as opposed to travel inconvenience.

What do you mean by "not convenient to go outside"? Are you referring to travelling out of state? I'm at the Operations Research Center at MIT now. As for Cornell/Columbia, I really don't think you can go wrong with either choice. Personally, I found Cornell more appealing when I visited last year, but I can see how living in Ithaca might be a huge turnoff for some people.

I agree with your tiers. I was in a similar position to you last year -- having to decide if I wanted to stay at my undergrad institution (although it is not as strong as Georgia Tech in OR) -- and chose not to stay. It's a tough call between Columbia and Cornell. I honestly think you'll have similar potential for success at either program, so you should consider specific faculty you'd like to work with. Furthermore, living in Ithaca is significantly different than living in NYC.

My friend who left Berkeley IEOR told me that desk space was allocated via a lottery type system, and there are not enough desks for all the students... Again, I don't have first-hand knowledge of the program, so hopefully a past/current student can chime in. As for Georgia Tech, I think their stipends have been shockingly low compared to other programs (albeit Atlanta has a cheaper cost of living compared to the cities where many other top programs are). I also heard (via faculty from my undergrad institution), that there have been some internal department politics causing issues in the program. I can't elaborate on that because I honestly don't know specifics of the situation, but maybe someone else who's more familiar with the program can provide more information to determine if it's actually a cause for concern.

Can you provide some more details about your specific research interests and other considerations that are important to you?

Keep in mind that this is second-hand information, but I've heard that Berkeley IEOR has been having funding issues recently. At other top programs, basically all PhD students have funding -- I don't think this has been the case at Berkeley the past few years. I have a friend who spent a year in Berkeley IEOR and really didn't enjoy it so he ended up transferring to a PhD program at another school. It's rather unfortunate because funding aside, I think Berkeley IEOR has a great reputation. Which other programs are you considering?

That's actually a bit alarming that they're putting so little effort into recruiting admitted students. I wonder if it's simply due to financial constraints.

what are your specific interests? SCM and finance are quite different.. I'm more familiar with OR/IE programs. Some good OR/IE programs in the US include (in no particular order) Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, University of Michigan, Cornell, Columbia, and Northwestern. I'm sure there are some other good programs, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

What year are you? Shouldn't you have an adviser to talk to about this?

phd or masters?

UM is more well-known for IE/OR. How have you still not decided where you're attending if you're a fall 2014 applicant?

Do you have any publications from your research? Evidence of strong research capabilities can often make up for weaker GPAs. The reason I asked what school you're currently at is that it does somewhat play a role in how your application is evaluated. A weaker GPA from a school like Cornell or Stanford is easier to overlook than the same GPA from a less rigorous school. To be brutally honest, I think it is extremely unlikely that you'll get in to any of the top ~10 IEOR programs. Having gone through the application process myself this past year, the vast majority of admitted students that I met had high GPAs from fairly prestigious universities. Having said all that, though, there are a ton of programs outside of the top ~10 and a 3.56 is not a terrible GPA, so I think you still have a shot of gaining admissions to some PhD programs.

what are you previous research experiences? where are you currently pursuing your masters?

ah ok, disregard what i said then -- i'm not knowledgeable about masters admissions. sorry about that.