2025 Best Operations Research Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

a master's degree in operations research is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #117 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for operations research students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 82 master's degrees in operations research during the 2021-2022 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to operations research students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of operations research students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt operations research students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized operations research related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for operations research students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Operations Research Schools

The operations research school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Operations Research Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Operations Research in the Great Lakes Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in operations research.

Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Master's in Operations Research

1

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

22 Annual Graduates

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in operations research. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in operations research from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2

Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH

16 Annual Graduates

Case Western Reserve University is a great choice for students interested in a master's degree in operations research. Case Western is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Cleveland.More information about a master’s in operations research from Case Western Reserve University

Best Operations Research Colleges by State

Explore the best operations research schools for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	221	52
Michigan	211	0
Ohio	207	51

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Operations Research

One of 41 majors within the Engineering area of study, Operations Research has other similar majors worth exploring.

Operations Research Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Operations Research	82

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering	1,228
Electrical Engineering	991
Civil Engineering	571
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	455
Biomedical Engineering	419
Computer Engineering	397
General Engineering	341
Industrial Engineering	334
Electrical and Computer Engineering.	293
Other Engineering	292

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard). More about our data sources and methodologies.