<p>Hello</p>
<p>I really like math and I'm wondering whether I should major in industrial engineering or math (analysis or operations research branch). I've been thinking that an engineering-intensive industrial engineering major with lots of math courses would be a nice option. Is there something that a math major could offer that industrial engineering doesn't have? I mean the question in pretty much anyway, in terms of career prospect, grad school prospects, etc etc.</p>
<p>thanks dudes</p>
<p>With a judicious selection of electives and (possibly) a little creative scheduling, math majors and industrial engineering majors can effectively study essentially the same things. Industrial engineering uses probability, statistics, and optimization (as well as related mathematics) to solve problems. Math majors can certainly focus on optimization (applied optimization is identical to operations research), probability and statistics. Therefore, as far as content is concerned, I wouldn’t anticipate any real differences.</p>
<p>Regarding employment with a bachelor’s, industrial engineering probably has an edge. Engineering degrees are just generally regarded as being more employable than math degrees, for better or worse. This may have to do, in many cases, with stricter grade requirements, accreditation (e.g., by ABET) which ensures a standard breadth and depth of coverage, etc. If you are sure that you want to get a bachelor’s and find a job, I would have to recommend industrial engineering.</p>
<p>Regarding graduate school, the issue becomes a bit more complex. You will typically want to have majored in (read: taken the standard undergraduate courses in) your field of intended graduate study. This isn’t to say that one couldn’t major in math and get accepted into graduate school for industrial engineering, or vice versa; just that it won’t make things any easier, and can make them harder in some real-world instances.</p>
<p>One solution to this problem - and which might address your concerns more generally - is that it could be possible for you to double/dual/joint major/degree at your institution. It’s common for students of computer science to do that kind of thing with math, and it isn’t unlikely that you’d be able to pull it off without too much extra effort. Doing this would solve your dilemma by allowing you to fully satisfy your academic interests in both areas (which are synergistic, in any event), while at the same time providing you with a more complete preparation for graduate schools and an engineering degree for employment with a bachelor’s.</p>
<p>Some people will argue that doing double/dual/etc. programs are not a good idea, since you lose the opportunity to take more specialized, advanced courses in one area. While that’s true, I believe that the purpose of an undergraduate education is to gain broad exposure to a field of study, not to specialize as soon as possible. A counterargument to this would be that employers and graduate schools like to see that you have taken advanced/specialized coursework. While that’s also true, I believe that a much better way to stand out to employers and graduate schools is through extracurriculars (here I mean, specifically, projects and/or research). In other words, specialize on the side, and get as solid a foundation as you can in your courses.</p>
<p>How about applied math?</p>
<p>Read The Goal by Goldratt, if that sounds like what you want to do Industrial Engineering would be better. If you are still on the fence go with the Applied Math or Math.</p>
<p>yeah I was referring to applied math. I’m not interested in pure math.</p>
<p>thanks guys, helped a lot.</p>