<p>I noticed one specialty for applied math majors (@ Case Western) was "operations research". I wanted to know exactly what that was and what kind of jobs that will lead to...</p>
<p>Thanks for any replies,</p>
<p>well, depending one exactly where you end up youll use a plethora of mathematical and statistical techiques with the goal of somehow increasing the efficiency of a system (the operation). you could be improving the efficiency of vehicle routes, working with industrial engineers to increase the efficiency of a manufacturing process, organizing an energy/transporation/communcations network, et cetera.</p>
<p>Nice rundown erica. The term was coined in WW2 by the allies, referring to the scientific approches to optimizing war logistics and operations. It's about most efficient allocation of resources using applied maths, statistics, but also managerial and social/psychological factors. It's basically management science, with a very broad range of applications in the business and engineering world.</p>
<p>It's a great major for someone who loves sciences but really wants a business career ultimately (like me!) A lot of OR majors end up getting MBAs.</p>
<p>Will someone majoring in OR will be taking almost exclusively math or is there more to it (you mentioned "managerial and social/psychological")?</p>
<p>Calx</p>
<p>Are you an OR major?</p>
<p>Yes I was an OR major at Cal, where it was combined with Industrial Engineering and called IEOR (lots of overlap.)</p>
<p>There aren't oo many math classes, but there are a lot of applied math and statistical concepts that are taught in OR classes. But the curriculum is fairly broad. Organizational Behaviour for instance is a full part of the curriculum. It's the main intersection between psychology and management. At Berkeley, there was a lot of flexibility built into the major, you could take a more traditional industrial engineering tack or make it more of social science approach with emphasis on econ and psych.</p>
<p>And you are indeed going for an MBA?</p>
<p>Do you feel that OR has been more quantitative reasoning than anything else, or is there a more qualitative and analytical aspect as well?</p>
<p>the curriculum at Cal was somewhat broad, but I can't speak for Case Western or others. </p>
<p>I already did my MBA (Haas), I am an alum.</p>