Difficulty of declaring ORMS major in L/S vs. switching to IEOR in COE

singh2010
Sun, 30 May 2010 22:15:37 +0000

Hey everyone,

So I’m an incoming freshman, and after doing some research and talking to some people, I’ve realized that I’m particularly interested in the field of Operations Research. I see that there are two main ways to study the subject at Berkeley: the Operations Research and Management Science (ORMS) major in L/S, and the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) major in COE. I understand that the curriculum for each is different, as ORMS requires Econ 1 and UGBA 10, while IEOR is more structured and requires physics and other engineering-specific classes.

I know that both programs are quite difficult to get into. On one hand, ORMS is heavily capped, as their website says that they only take something like 25 students. If I wanted to apply for that major, I would take Math 53 and Econ 1 my first semester, followed by Math 54 and UGBA 10 my second semester, before applying at the end of my first year at Berkeley. On the other hand, IEOR is not THE most popular major in the College of Engineering, but the fact it is in COE automatically makes it harder to switch into. Anyways, so my question is: Which one of the two programs would it be easier for an incoming L/S student to get into? That is, assuming I get all A’s or mostly A’s my first year, which of the programs would most likely reject me despite those good grades? I don’t really have a preference as to which one I would enter, because all of the classes listed on the course guidelines of both majors seem interesting to me.

Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.