Michigan IOE program (jobs, cost, courses, math, graduation opportunities)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>How strong is Michigan's Industrial Engineering (IOE) program? Is it worth it? Are the classes difficult? How do they compare to the lower level math classes like the calcs and diff eqs type classes? </p>

<p>What do most IOEs do after graduation? How are the GPAs for the classes? How do IOE classes compare to statistics classes or Ross classes? Are the graduates sucessful for the most part? Is there a lot of unemployment after graduation for IOEs? </p>

<p>how heavy is the courseload? How much computer programming are in the classes? What about internship opportunities? Where do most graduates head after graduation? Is it easy to land a job in the ann arbor/detroit area with a michigan ioe degree?</p>

<p>What about graduate school? Do many get MBAs or masters in industrial engineering? Any grads work on wall street? What about working as traditional industrial engineers or even mechanical engineers for a company like Ford? Thanks.</p>

<p>What about the sequential 5 year masters program where you get a masters after your fourth year? Anybody have experience with that program? Is the masters significantly harder than the undergrad ioe courses? What does one do in the master's program for IOE?</p>

<p>If you have a lower gpa in the 3.0-3.4 range, is your career choice significantly limited? Are you basically able to get any job you want if you get a GPA above a 3.5? Also, if one is bad socially, is this not the major to choose? What's a good major for a person who's average/below average socially?</p>

2

<p>You ask many questions that cannot be answered absolutely. Mostof your questions require subjective and relative answers. Below are some subjective/relative answers?</p>

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<li><p>Michigan’s IOE department is ranked between #2 and #3 in the US. That makes it one of the very best. Only Georgia Tech is considered better in IOE.</p></li>
<li><p>Relative to other Engineering disciplines, IOE is one of the easier ones. Chemical and Electrical Engineering are considered the toughest, followed by Materials and Mechanical. Nevertheless, IOE is still a tough major that requires strong quantitative skills and serious commitment on part of the student.</p></li>
<li><p>Michigan’s CoE is highly recruited by all sorts of companies. To put it bluntly, Michigan Engineers are in high demand. EECS majors are typically recruited by the likes of Cisco, Google, Intel and Microsoft. Chemical Engineering majors are typically recruited by the likes of BASF, BP, Dow, Dupont, Exxon Mobil and Shell. Mechanical and IOE are generally recruited by a very broad range of companies, mostly manufacturing, such as Ford, GM etc… The only IOE student I knew landed a job with BCG in Washington DC upon graduation, worked for them for 3 years and then went on to Harvard Business School. That is not to say that all IOE majors at Michigan follow a similar path, but it certainly happens.</p></li>
<li><p>The 5th year graduate program is excellent, but only if necessary and affordable. In other words, should your finances be in order (parents have the money), and should you have tried hard to find a job and not found one by late August after graduation, pursuing a 5th year graduate degree cannot hurt. I recommend students intensely look for summer internships starting in the fall of their Sophomore year (ideally, all students should complete two summer internships before starting their senior year). At the same time, students lose nothing by speaking to their academic advisor in the CoE to know what steps need to be followed to qualify for a 5th year graduate program. As of the first week of senior year, students should be involved with the career office in revising and updating their resume and should aggressible look for full time work while at the same time, apply for the 5th year graduate program. Usually, most Engineers with 2.7+ GPAs will find work within three months of having graduated from Michigan. If that is not the case and the student is admitted into the 5th year graduate program, staying on for a fifth year may be worth it…assuming such a degree is not too financially draining.</p></li>
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3

<p>I answered some of your previous questions in PM, but I’ll answer the rest here.</p>

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<p>Now really, it’s not. A lot of IOE undergrads are the ones who dropped out of other engineering majors. That’s different than Grad IOE, but undergrad nothing is really hard.</p>

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<p>There programming required is minimal. 373 is the only required programming class which is relatively easy. It’s a bit time consuming though, but if you do all your assignments right and on time you’ll get an A. </p>

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<p>A lot of IOE undergrads plan to at some point get an MBA. I don’t know how many actually do. I imagine that’s the same as at Berkeley.</p>

<p>My IOEish internship interviews were entirely behavioral based. Take from that what you will. It doesn’t seem like anyone expects their IOE interns to be smart. </p>

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<p>I don’t think so… But my GPA is not in that range so I am not completely sure.</p>

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<p>No… Additionally, I think a “very good” GPA might be more in the 3.8+ range for IOE (which is not too abnormal, I’d say half of the people I know in IOE whose GPAs I could reliable guess fall in this range - easily 20 people), if that’s what you were trying to determine with this question. I do know many people who have gotten internships at very prestigious financial firms however, if that’s your goal. But I think these decisions are based mostly on criteria other than GPA.</p>

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<p>I’d say the average IOE has better social skills than the average person in any other engineering major, but I’m an awkward weirdo and I’m able to find other awkward weirdo IOE majors to talk to and interact with.</p>

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<p>They range dependent on the class but I’d say the average in most of the core classes is a B, B- at worst, and in most of the upper levels is a B+. Additionally, there are a fair number of IOEs who really aren’t very smart. If you’re smart, you’re not gonna be at the bottom of the curve. </p>

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<p>As far as I can tell, most people secure jobs just fine. Recruiting is kinda lame (in that it seems like you’ll have to go through a lot of interviews to get a few offers - not just for me but for everyone), but as for ending up with no job offers, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that happening to anyone. Given, I might not be the best source on that as I don’t know too many people who have graduated. </p>

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<p>As I told you in PM, I think 510 (which is a pretty common master’s class) and 518 (not as common for masters students) are pretty difficult. However, you can make a masters much easier than that. Many masters student take 400-levels which are meant for undergrads. Only 8 credits have to be from 500+ IOE classes, and I’ve been told the 54X classes are significantly easier than the 51X classes.</p>

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<p>ok thanks for the responses. I’m going to do IOE at Umichigan. I’m hoping for a 3.5+ gpa and for a good job after graduation. I’d like to stay in the area or go to maybe chicago.</p>

<p>I’m really hoping I can get into the 5 year sequential graduate study masters program. After that, I might get a phd or another masters in applied math.</p>

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<p>For what it’s worth, it makes a lot more sense to go from Math to IOE than vice-versa. The IOE undergrad curriculum would not at all prepare you for a graduate math program. You’d definitely want to take several extra math courses if you intend to get a masters in math.</p>

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<p>I’m getting a masters in applied mathematics and it only requires math up to linear algebra. The U of M applied math masters only requires up to linear algebra/diff eq. I"ve taken the calcs, Lin Alg, and Differential Equations and am planning on minoring in stats or applied statistics.</p>

<p>I’m taking all the quantitative type classes for my 400 levels, none of that ergo bs, lol. </p>

<p>So I think I should be ready to handle applied math. I have a friend who went from IOE to applied math.</p>

<p>I would not do pure math because that’s for people who want to go into academia and it’s very rigorous, has a lot of proofs, and is abstract.</p>

<p>I think applied math would be a plus, and doable, though or applied statistics.</p>

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<p>or am I wrong about applied math?</p>

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<p>[UM</a> Mathematics-Graduate Masters Program](<a href=“http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/graduate/masters.html]UM”>http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/graduate/masters.html)</p>

<p>Applied math is under there. I haven’t taken 452, but I’ve heard it’s MUCH harder than 451 which is not easy on it’s own. A number of courses do overlap with IOE (561, 562, 660, 663) so I suppose you can make a Masters in applied math look like a Masters in IOE + 1 analysis class and 1 combinatorics class, but if you want to make it’s own distinct degree, without any IOE courses, most of those classes are pretty difficult.</p>

<p>None of the 400-level IOE courses have the same level of math as 400-level Math courses. IOE is a distinct field from applied math. There might be some overlap but they’re not basically the same thing if that’s what you’re thinking.</p>

<p>And that’s not to say you can’t do applied math masters after undergrad+masters in IOE, but it’s more sensible to do undergrad in math followed by masters in IOE and math.</p>