NU vs. WUSTL vs. CMU [math/operations research/industrial engineering]

Sam_Lee
Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:21:27 +0000

generaljoe,
Penn State obviously has an excellent program; the differences I see are the followings:

1. Penn State’s program has significantly more emphasis on manufacturing system/process

2. Penn state’s program is more rigid; there are more required courses (13 vs 9 at NU) and less specialization electives (3 vs 7 at NU). If you don’t plan to go into manufacturing or deal with manufacturing companies, you may not like being forced to take “product design, specificaitons, measurements”, “work design, productivity, and safety”, “manufacturing systems design”, and “manufacturing processing elective”.

3. As in many semester schools, it’s tough to add a second major at Penn State, especially with a rigid curriculum, without spending an extra year.

4. You are required to take physics and chemistry at PSU

5. The first year curriculum is very different; at NU, linear algebra, differential eqn, part of mechanics, and programming are all integrated into 4 courses of “engineering analysis”. You’d also have 2 quarters working on real world projects for industry clients and make presentatations (in groups of 3-4). At PSU, like just about everywhere (Olin is an exception I can think of and it’s similar to NU), you wouldn’t start seeing some engineering until second semester of sophomore year. NU gets you exposed to engineering much earlier in an integrated manner; the real-world projects in the curriculum, let alone having it done during the freshmen year, is unique among engineering schools. (I personally think Engineering First makes NU engineering superior to some higher-ranked schools since this benifit isn’t captured in any ranking)

[Undergraduate Curriculum Plan](http://www.ie.psu.edu/Academics/Undergraduate/Courses/Curriculumplan.html)