MS Industrial Engineering or MS Statistics?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm graduating with a BS in math next year and planning to get a master's degree in my current school. Right now I'm debating between MS IE and MS Statistics. Many of the required courses in MS IE are related to statistics. It takes 3 semesters to get MS IE (no internship), but 4 semesters for MS Stat (including a required internship course). MS Statistics is more like a professional degree. Which one should I choose? Or is it worthy getting both in 6 semesters (There are two overlapping courses)? Which one is better in terms of job outlook and career development in the long run? Appreciate for any suggestions.</p>

2

<p>I would choose the MS Industrial Engineering with a focus on Supply Chain Management/Logistics/ or Operations Management.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the suggestion. Are you an IE major? Were you able to get any internships in SCM?</p>

4

<p>Do industrial. More options and of course more directly applicable to industry. For stats, insurance companies come to mind, and also academia of course, but I don’t know where else it could be useful. But that’s probably just my own ignorance, I’m not familiar with statistics job prospects.</p>

5

<p>The description of the stat program says that statisticians can work in areas like health care, industry, government, or education. </p>

<p>I heard the IE jobs are being outsourced to foreign countries. I’m worried that I won’t be able to get a job after I graduate with a master’s degree. You know it’ll be really sad if that happens after spending all the time and money.</p>

6

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<p>The nice thing about an MS in Statistics is that it lets you “play in everybody’s pool”, to quote one of my Statistics professors. </p>

<p>Stats, when you break it down to its simplest form, is the study of data. Almost every area uses data (I’m not saying they use it properly), so you are eligible for a vast majority of jobs. If the job description says “Masters in Quantitative field”, then you are covered with an MS in Stats.</p>

<p>Also, just because you have an MS in Stats doesn’t mean you have to be a “Statistician”.</p>