Operations Research/ Industrial Engineering 2010

[pittman]

Does anybody know about the current job scene after Stanford's MS&E program?

Just got some news from Stanford's MS&E department. They have admitted around 120 doctoral and over 275 Masters students this year! Is that a lot? or is that a regular figure?

[testarossa]

Just got some news from Stanford's MS&E department. They have admitted around 120 doctoral and over 275 Masters students this year! Is that a lot? or is that a regular figure?

Where did you get this statistics ?

[wifey99999999]

Just got some news from Stanford's MS&E department. They have admitted around 120 doctoral and over 275 Masters students this year! Is that a lot? or is that a regular figure?

Wow. I am surprised.. I was told that they admit about 25%~30% this year... And I am even more surprised that I am not one of the 275 Master admits.

[dasgut]

Wow. I am surprised.. I was told that they admit about 25%~30% this year... And I am even more surprised that I am not one of the 275 Master admits.

That doesn't sound quite right. That would mean that they doubled their PhD population and MS population.

[ORhopeful]

120 doctoral admits.!

[testarossa]

The entire department has 284 MS and 108 PhD students, .... they can't possibly double their department size

source:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/MSandE/cgi-bin/academics/studentinfo.php

Edited March 19, 2010 by testarossa

[wifey99999999]

The entire department has 284 MS and 108 PhD students, .... they can't possibly double their department size

source:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/MSandE/cgi-bin/academics/studentinfo.php

That's a pretty big department...

The number is even bigger than Columbia's IEOR department's number, and we all thought Columbia's reputation is taking a hit by taking too many students!

Edited March 19, 2010 by wifey99999999

[testarossa]

That's a pretty big department...

The number is even bigger than Columbia's IEOR department's number, and we all thought Columbia's reputation is taking a hit by taking too many students!

Stanford MS&E department is the result of a merging among 3 different departments: Dep. of Industrial Engineering, Dep. of Engineering Management and Dep. of Economic System and Operations Research. The department have 36 faculty members compared with 19 faculty members of Columbia IEOR so the student-faculty ratio at Stanford is a little bit better.

But as you said, it's still a huge number. We can't deny that both programs are intended as cash cow. If the the numbers from pittman is correct, it's now even harder to choose between Stanford and Columbia ....

[18apples]

Just got waitlisted by cornell..

wonder if that is good news...

[ipmser]

Just got waitlisted by cornell..

wonder if that is good news...

you mean, you got the email this afternoon. I thought they did that last Friday.

[18apples]

you mean, you got the email this afternoon. I thought they did that last Friday.

i guess they do so in batches. anyway that just means i will have to wait till april 15th . Once they know who accepts/ rejects their offer they will let me know. Lets see if columbia works out

[wifey99999999]

lol Wifey...I think someone is a little bitter he did not get an admit from Stanford.

Either way, that number does not seem any larger or smaller than before. The number of admitted students does not equal the number of students who plan to accept the offer. We have no idea what the historic yield is. The fact that there are 284 current Masters students makes sense since the program is intended to be completed in 1 school year. Thus, at any one given time, we should expect there to around 200 or so first year Masters students and perhaps a few more who decide to take the course part-time and complete it in 2 years or more.

The high number of doctoral admits doesn't surprise me either considering that the yield is probably lower than other departments and the department is so interdisciplinary. There are 8 tracks within the departments with professors researching in each group, which translates to about 15 or so admits per track. That doesn't seem too strange.

The "Cash Cow" nature of a program is true of most Masters programs. It's not particular to MS&E. Honestly, I would be more worried about paying 40k in tuition for a non-technical degree than one that sends most of its grads to tech/consulting/finance/business. Plus, if you are interested in tech/entrepreneurship/venture capital, Stanford is absolutely the best school to go to.

And finally, the entire MS&E department is moving to a brand new engineering building in the summer. I saw pictures of it and it looks pretty incredible. We would be the first class to enjoy the new building, which would be pretty cool.

I wasn't bitter when I received the rejection, because I thought Stanford has a small intake like Princeton or MIT (50 or so admits each year)...

Now that I know Stanford has even larger student body than Columbia, and I had admission offers from large-size programs like Ga-Tech, Columbia, Michigan, then I'd feel a little bitter how I didn't get in...

[Soumen Bose]

Hello All

In addition to Columbia - MFE and Berkeley MS/PhD IEOR, I have received offers from Cornell - MEng ORIE (FE Concentration) and Stanford - MS MS&E. Given my strong inclination towards Financial Engg (FE), I am certainly ruling out Berkeley and Stanford at this stage (Stanford, in any case, was last in my preference list). However, I am having a very tough time deciding between Columbia and Cornell. I have not heard good things about Columbia's placement services, though I have come to know that the MFE program's content and faculty members are really top notch, probably the best in academic sphere. Cornell's FE, might not be a patch on the likes of Columbia and NYU as far as program content and faculty goes, has got the following key drivers:

• Small batch size (45-50)
• University assistance in securing industry internships
• Provision of attending the final semester and doing the group project in Manhattan

Would really appreciate if someone can provide me with an objective assessment of the options (Columbia Vs Cornell) available at my disposal.

N.B. I have also applied to NYU MFM (very bullish on getting an admit) and CMU MSCF (a hard nut to crack).

Thanks in advance and Best of luck to all applicants.

[pittman]

That doesn't sound quite right. That would mean that they doubled their PhD population and MS population.

Sorry guys my mistake,

The mail from the admissions in charge said that they wont be able to give any funding because they have over 120 doctoral students and over 275 masters students. I guess she meant the whole department.

Really sorry for the confusion.

[luosrevo]

got rejected from Columbia MSIE...ruining my weekend.

I thought they don't work on weekends.

[testarossa]

Seadub is right. Since there are 8 different tracks and they are very distinctive (Environment, Finance, Entrepreneurship .... ) unlike Columbia (OR, EMS, IE, FE), you can divide the total number by 8, making each track has 30 students which is a fairly good class size.

@Souman: Congratulation with all the admits. Columbia's MFE is very prestigious, at least on top 5. It is the crown jewel of Columbia IEOR department, on par with Princeton Math Fin and Baruch MFE (though overrated). However, I would strongly suggest to go to Columbia MFE if you are not Asian because Columbia has a lot of MSOR Asian (150+) also concentrating in FE. You'd have to compete with all of them for job. Otherwise, if you are Asian, Cornell is better IMO.

Here is link to 2 reviews, one for Columbia's MFE and one for Cornell's FE

Columbia: http://www.quantnet.com/review-of-columbia-university-financial-engineering-program

Cornell: http://www.quantnet.com/review-cornell-financial-engineering-program

Edited March 21, 2010 by testarossa

[willow]

I just got formal offer letter from OM department in NYU Stern, so I can safely say 'no' to other offers.

It's the end of my PhD application this year. Used to be sad when those rejections came to me, but overall I should say it's a satisfactory result.

Wish everyone the best of luck with the applications!

Edited March 22, 2010 by willow

[Deleted]

I just got formal offer letter from OM department in NYU Stern, so I can safely say 'no' to other offers.

It's the end of my PhD application this year. Used to be sad when those rejections came to me, but overall I should say it's a satisfactory result.

Wish everyone the best of luck with the applications!

Congrats on the acceptances willow, you have every reason to be satisfied with the results of your applications.

May I ask what you are going to decide?

[willow]

Congrats on the acceptances willow, you have every reason to be satisfied with the results of your applications.

May I ask what you are going to decide?

I will choose Stern. But I feel so sorry to say 'sorry' to northwestern and maryland, especially northwestern because everyone I met there during the info weekend last month was SO nice to me. Really, everyone: professors, students and staff. Everyone seems happy and enjoys the life there. So I am sure you will love it there too, ORmalv. For me, since my fiance is in philadelphia now, I don't want to stay too far away from him. So among schools on same level, I will choose the one on the east coast...

[wifey99999999]

I will choose Stern. But I feel so sorry to say 'sorry' to northwestern and maryland, especially northwestern because everyone I met there during the info weekend last month was SO nice to me. Really, everyone: professors, students and staff. Everyone seems happy and enjoys the life there. So I am sure you will love it there too, ORmalv. For me, since my fiance is in philadelphia now, I don't want to stay too far away from him. So among schools on same level, I will choose the one on the east coast...

Does it bother you that NYU has no campus? I mean, no campus means there will be no campus atmosphere like you would experience at many other schools, right?

[willow]

Does it bother you that NYU has no campus? I mean, no campus means there will be no campus atmosphere like you would experience at many other schools, right?

Well, that's a good question.. I will try to treat the whole NYC as the campus of NYU (as someone has suggested), and enjoy myself as much as I can But seriously, for me, a nice office and a nice gym are all I ask for the campus. Personally I am not that fond of student groups / society.. After all, there are so many things to do in NYC, so I really have nothing to complain.

[wifey99999999]

Stanford Engineering

Interestingly appropriate article about Stanford Engineering from the SFGate. Basically, Stanford admits that they are going for a new "soft" approach to engineering that is divergent from what you'd expect in a tradition technical institute. They are seriously on the "edge" of accreditation as an engineering program?? The head of the program is even quoted as saying: "These students might not be as technically facile, but over five or 10 years they become the project leaders and innovators," he said. "They may have new ideas and take a very different view of problems."

Uhm, seriously?

I guess that's why they rejected me... I am way too technically facile for their standard....

[diredingo]

Btw, here's a great site & forum for info about financial engineering programs. Most are housed in IE/OR departments. Also has an application tracker and problem sets for the curious.

http://www.quantnet.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=44

[testarossa]

I was contacted by Columbia MSOR today by email, asking me to call them for a quick interview. So I called and were asked about what are my other admits and whether Columbia is my first choice.

It seems Columbia is really struggling to retain good candidates. I guess their acceptance rate was really low last year.

Edited March 23, 2010 by testarossa

[wifey99999999]

I was contacted by Columbia MSOR today by email, asking me to call them for a quick interview. So I called and were asked about what are my other admits and whether Columbia is my first choice.

It seems Columbia is really struggling to retain good candidates. I guess their acceptance rate was really low last year.

Their acceptance rate can't be low... If they are struggling getting students, then they should send out more admits than before.... Why would they be too selective if they can't find new students? My guess their acceptance % is probably 25~35%.

Edited March 23, 2010 by wifey99999999