Is Industrial Engineering worth majoring in?

GLOBALTRAVELER
Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:38:08 +0000

@globaltraveller i saw that you advised someone to go with a math degree for undergrad and IE for masters. is there any particular reason?



Yes, three reasons…

1) If the IE grad program is heavy with operations research, then a math major can complete the program with very little extra/pre-requisite courses needed.

2) Although math/physics majors can be hired to do engineering work, the overall climate and environment of engineering firms still (to me) caters to those with an ENGINEERING degree. Sometimes the math/physics grad is looked at a more “raw” talent but not (in their eyes) the polished “engineering” talent. I could be way off base as I am adding in past experiences (and many not towards me…just what I have seen). So I do advocate getting an engineering masters degree if you happen to get hired in engineering work and are a science/math major.

3) IE is the major that can get you into systems engineering if there is no specific systems engineering major at the school.