2025 Best Operations Research Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region

Operations Research is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #117 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Operations Research Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 306 master's degrees in operations research during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

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 colleges 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 Far Western US Region.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Operations Research in the Far Western US Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in operations research.

Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Master's in Operations Research

1

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

194 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in operations research. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the city of Berkeley.More information about a master’s in operations research from University of California - Berkeley

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

21 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in operations research. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in operations research from University of Southern California

Best Operations Research Colleges by State

Explore the best operations research colleges for a specific state in the Far Western US Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	253	202

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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	306

Majors Similar to Operations Research

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	1,998
Mechanical Engineering	1,384
Civil Engineering	1,260
Computer Engineering	1,250
Biomedical Engineering	572
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	399
Other Engineering	355
Systems Engineering	301
General Engineering	300
Materials Engineering	300

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.