<p>It's been a while since i've been on this forum, but throughout summer vacation, i've been pondering about what major/career path i should take. And seeing as how i am entering my sophomore year in the college of engineering, it's pretty vital I found out pretty soon. I've jumped around from mech e, to AEM, to even architecture! But the path that i've wanted to take for the past year has been Operations Research.</p>
<p>But a problem stands in the way. My dad (typical korean parent) doesn't know what Operations Research is. He thinks it's some BS major just because he hasn't heard of it. So I told him that other major engineering programs, i.e. MIT, Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, have this major.
But he (a computer science nerd) wants me to major in CS simply because he said i'm almost guaranteed a job with CS. </p>
<p>***? I don't wanna be a CS major! I took 100M and dropped it, and had to take it over 2nd semester!</p>
<p>Anyways, point being...
How can i convince him that Operations Research is the way to go? I want to do something business-oriented and not just sit around finding the torque and triple integrals of **** to find volumes all my life. And frankly, I don't want to do any other "engineering" engineer majors like chem e, bio e, etc etc. </p>
<p>tell your dad to cool off, after all with your degree you'll be able to calculate whether his programs/applications meet the demand your production requires ^__^</p>
<p>BTW, Columbia Fu School of Engineering has an Ops Research major too.</p>
<p>I happen to think it is one of the most exciting majors!! Extremely math oriented, and totally practical. When I was in business school, it was my absolutely favorite course. Completely focused on solving real-life problems.</p>
<p>If you want to convince your father, ask your career center to help you win the argument about jobs. However, I agree with the above posters -- sometimes you just have to accept that your parents won't like what you do but you go ahead and do it anyway.</p>
<p>Tell your dad that you'll take computer science and then take Orie courses ;)</p>
<p>My parents never saw my grades during my entire stay at Cornell. I could've graduated with a BA in underwater basketweaving and they wouldn't know.</p>
<p>One suggestion ... find an article or book with stories of the beginnings of OR&IE ... which are stories of using applied math to help the Allied cause during WWII ... for example, designing search patterns so planes could cover the most area in the least amount of flying miles and time. </p>
<p>Another suggestion ... find out the companies and salaries of OR&IE grads last year ... that will be very competative with other engineering majors (and I would guess would be better than CS)</p>
<p>The OR&IE profs at Cornell should be able to help with info for whichever argument your Dad might find more pursuavive.</p>
<p>We used to refer to IE-OR as "Imaginary Engineering". Because frankly, outside of sharing some math it has nothing to do with building real things, along tradional engineering lines. And it was considered an easier major in the engineering school at the time.</p>
<p>However, that in no way means it was not worth studying for those so disposed, or that it did not lead to lucrative and interesting careers. I mean what did we know about the real world, anyway.</p>
<p>There's two OR grads I went to school with at Cornell that I can now recall well.</p>
<p>One got an MBA at a leading program; last I read about him he was a company CEO. </p>
<p>The other got a job out of college with a major US Corporation, in a position usually given to MBAs IIRC. Don't know what happened afterwards. He was about the smartest guy in the engineering college at the time.</p>
<p>There is a [former?] CC poster with handle Redbeard who is a Cornell OR grad and has practiced in the field. You might search for his past posts; also perhaps he's still kicking around here and might see this thread.</p>