<p>I hope I am writing this in the correct thread. First off let me give you guys a brief info about my self. I am a sophomore currently going to UIUC and doing CS. I am very interested in FE/OR field or management engineering, I am just wondering what would improve my chance of getting into top school in this field. Now I am having a 3.5ish gpa and hopefully will graduate with 3.5-3.6 gpa. I am having some internship in CS field this upcomming summer. What I am wondering is do I need to do research in order to get into top school in this field? (Because in CS, you have to do research inorder to get into top program). </p>
<p>Now I am currently helping an OR professor in a research at my university in using different probability model to predict an outcome of different things. My question is, do I need to do research inorder to get into top OR/FE/Managment Engineering Program? (eg. Stanford, MIT, Princeton,Berkeley,Harvard). I am also taking many classes outside of my major like Numerical method, Operation Research, and Financial engineering. </p>
<p>What type of GPA should I be aiming for? Do I need to do research? Should I not do CS research and aim for OR research instead? Any suggestion? </p>
<p>I am not aiming for PHD program, a Master degree would be enough and I am able to provide my own funding, however getting into PHD program would be a dream come true for me in these top schools.</p>
<p>You should definitely do research with an OR professor if it's possible; it'll be a big boost for both PhD and MS admissions. For summertime, it might be preferable to get an REU over an internship for the summer or your junior year since if you can do well then, you'd have solid recommendations coming from two different schools (shows you can perform well in multiple environments).</p>
<p>Get as high of a GPA as possible, but be sure to keep it over a 3.5. If you can manage to break a 3.7 or a 3.75, that would probably be best and would prevent you from being ruled out from any top schools based on GPA alone.</p>
<p>I'd also recommend looking at the schools you're interested in for graduate studies and try to get a position there over next summer. If you do well then, I can't imagine the school turning you down for PhD studies.</p>
<p>However the big problem is the research part. I talked with this OR professor, who I code stuff for him, that I am interested in doing a real OR research (what I am doing now is writing a program for him using my CS knowledge). He said that OR research for undergrad is very hard to do because by the time undergrad students get enough knowledge about OR they are in their senior year. (Unlike CS where you can start since sophomore or junior year)</p>
<p>Well, any research experience is beneficial, and I think if you get experience working with this OR guy and can become fully aware of his research I'm sure it'll help your personal statement and stuff like that when you're doing your applications.</p>