aeiou12345

I don’t know what hapless potential OR PhD student may stumble upon this in the future, but I thought if someone does it might be useful to know where I got in (and once I decide, where I ended up, maybe!). All applications were to PhD programs.
Accepted:
GTech ISyE
Cornell ORIE
Berkeley IEOR
Columbia IEOR
Waitlisted:
Stanford GSB OIT
Rejected:
CMU ACO (through math dept.)
MIT ORC
Princeton ORFE
Stanford MSE OR
Interviewed:
UMich IOE (withdrew)

I don’t know what hapless potential OR PhD student may stumble upon this in the future, but I thought if someone does it might be useful to know where I got in (and once I decide, where I ended up, maybe!). All applications were to PhD programs.
Accepted:
GTech ISyE
Cornell ORIE
Berkeley IEOR
Columbia IEOR
Waitlisted:
Stanford GSB OIT
Rejected:
CMU ACO (through math dept.)
MIT ORC
Princeton ORFE
Stanford MSE OR
Interviewed:
UMich IOE (withdrew)

I am not sure anyone has received an acceptance from UMich IOE yet, but this reminded me to withdraw my application to the program. I hope you get in, it’s a really lovely program and I’m wishing you luck!! ?

Anyone heard from Columbia, MIT ORC, or Stanford MSE yet?

Didn't apply there, but got other updates! Just got a rejection from Princeton (well, duh, that was expected lol) and an acceptance from Cornell!

Haha exactly the same! Congratulations on Cornell!! 

OMG we're gonna be seeing SO much of each other over these visits haha! CONGRATULATIONS and also I'm sorry but mostly CONGRATULATIONS! Cornell's department is so incredible, and I am so so thrilled for the acceptance.

Check out my profile from way back which I think is similar to yours but less OR focused. I also applied having no idea what OR was like and I got into Northwestern and GaTech ML (ISYE) with special fellowships for both. I only applied to the two because my main interests was Statistics PhDs. I think you have a good shot at all of them except MIT because, well, MIT (still worth applying IMO tho)

Hey, this is mostly a statistics forum, so I will forewarn you that this is a *very* uninformed opinion.  But some people here over the years have applied to both statistics and operations research programs, so I've seen a little bit of these admissions results.  I'm guessing when you say you go to a liberal arts college that it's a pretty good one? Top 20 or top 50 at least?
Regardless, your profile looks very strong both in terms of coursework and research and I'd recommend you apply to any of those programs that interest you and I suspect you'll have good results.  It seems to me, from an outsider perspective, that once you get past MIT/Princeton, the level of competition drops dramatically and these programs tend to not be as competitive as statistics PhDs, where I would recommend you apply to top programs.  I have seen some applicants here who didn't get into top 40 statistics programs but got into OR programs like Berkeley, so I imagine you will have a lot of good choices. 

No worries, you can scroll down to my post in this thread:
Good Luck!