When it comes to popularity, a bachelor's degree in operations research sits in the middle of the road, ranking #206 out of 363 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2024, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Operations Research Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 297 bachelor's degrees in operations research to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Operations Research School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of operations research for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality operations research program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 bachelor'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 easy is it for operations research to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized operations research related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for operations research students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Operations Research Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Operations Research in the Middle Atlantic Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in operations research.
Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Operations Research
It is difficult to beat Columbia University in the City of New York if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in operations research. Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Operations Research bachelor's degree recipients from Columbia University in the City of New York get an earnings boost of around $4,542 over the average earnings of operations research majors.
Cornell University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in operations research. Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Ithaca.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the operations research program report average early career earnings of $78,243.
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.