<p>So, here's my deal... I'm not really sure if I'm competitive enough as a candidate to get into a good school, and if I'm not, if this is even something I should do just yet. If anyone knows anything about OR admissions (anything at all, really! I value all input!), I would greatly appreciate your wisdom. Based on these stats, do you think I've got a shot at any schools worth going to, or should I save myself the time and app fees and go with Plan B?</p>
<ul>
<li>Small but well-known liberal arts college (small enough that I'm kind of paranoid about revealing which one here, but I doubt this is going to make or break my application, so not too worried about the specifics)</li>
<li>3.4/4.0 GPA; major: Mathematics</li>
<li>GRE: 800V/800Q/4.5W</li>
<li>No research or real work experience</li>
<li>Not sure my LORs are going to be exactly glowing, though they'll be positive</li>
</ul>
<p>So I've got good scores, but the rest of my application is kind of mediocre. I've been considering going back and picking up another BS in an engineering discipline, and in the process I'd theoretically bump up my GPA a bit and get some research experience, and from there get some faculty recs from people who actually worked with me and didn't just grade a few tests and talk to me a couple of times. Finances aside, this doesn't seem like such a bad idea. I've also been checking out BU's LEAP program, but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and I really have no idea how competitive that is, so I'm trying to explore my other options, too.</p>
<p>What do the experts (real, armchair, or otherwise) think?</p>
<p>hey you have great scores. shouldn’t you have no problem getting somewhere? sorry i’m not being so helpful… I’ve heard of MSOR at Columbia being mentioned along with MFin and MSFE. Do you know how’s job placement with MSOR degrees and what kind of jobs await with this degree? Sorry I’m answering your question with more questions. Great stats though!!! I’m considering applying to MFin and maybe MSFE and/or MSOR at Columbia so I’m curious.</p>
<p>I have no idea about job placement statistics, sorry. I tend to go into things without thinking about where they’ll take me a lot, and I’m still in the very preliminary stages of thinking about doing this, so I haven’t done much research. </p>
<p>As far as Boston U’s LEAP program goes, I only just learned about it myself, so I don’t have a list of other things along those lines. I DO know that a lot of schools offer a 5 year BS/MS track, and depending on what classes you can transfer in, that might very well be a 3 or 4 year BS/MS track (if you have, say, a math or physics background and are planning on not taking summers off). LEAP has a 12 course “Phase I” before you start the regular grad program, some of which you may have already taken (Calc II, Physics I, etc.). Keeping in mind that even if you only need 8 of the 12 courses, you probably don’t want to take 4 engineering classes simultaneously (plus some are undoubtedly pre-reqs for the others), so it’s possibly not that different in terms of time investment to just get the second BS, and either pick up the MS on top of it if that’s an option or go somewhere else. BU’s engineering grad school is ranked 42 according to US News, whatever you want to take away from that. Just food for thought.</p>