<p>I'm applying to Carnegie Mellon this year and I'm interested in the Operations Research and Statistics major (in MCS). I want to become a financial engineer and I really like the computational finance program. I know that the program is competitive however so I'm looking for other majors that would be good for my career interest.</p>
<p>Is Operations Research considered one of Carnegie Mellon's stronger departments? Does the math department have as good a reputation as the CS and ECE departments? Also, are there a lot of people studying operations research who want to enter financial engineering?</p>
<p>OR is pretty good at CMU, I’d say:</p>
<p>[Ranking</a> of Operations Research, Systems Engineering, and Industrial Engineering Graduate Schools — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide](<a href=“http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/industrial-engineering/rank/__M_____________________________________________________________U]Ranking”>http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/industrial-engineering/rank/__M_____________________________________________________________U)</p>
<p>Math usually means something quite different from OR, and its reputation is not very relevant to that of OR’s.</p>
<p>@4thfloor, thanks, I didn’t know that. Do you why is general math considered to be different than OR (especially since OR is a math concentration at Carnegie Mellon)?</p>
<p>In research universities, OR usually has its own department, like Statistics. Sometimes there is also a separate a Applied Math department.</p>
<p>Math normally consists of pure math subfields like Analysis, Algebra, Geometry & Topology, Logic, etc., and are ranked that way.</p>
<p>Thanks. How big is the math program and about how many students graduate from it each year? Do math majors have as big a presence as engineering majors (not including ECE) or science majors?</p>
<p>See under Programs/Majors: [College</a> Navigator - Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“College Navigator - Carnegie Mellon University”>College Navigator - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>