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B.S. in Operations Research and Engineering

Cornell’s Bachelor of Science in Operations Research and Engineering program teaches data science, optimization, machine learning, and mathematical modeling crucial in today’s tech economy. Applications span online market design, transportation, healthcare, and logistics.

Important information

Format

In-Person

Page Contents

Note: This page provides a general overview. For complete and accurate information, please refer to the Engineering Undergraduate Handbook and consult with your advisor. For current course offerings and information, refer to the Cornell University Registrar: Courses of Study.

Eligibility and Academic Standards

Affiliation Eligibility Requirements

Cornell Engineering undergraduates who meet the following eligibility requirements can affiliate with the Operations Research and Engineering major:

  • A cumulative grade point average (GPA) greater than or equal to 2.2 in math, science, and engineering courses, both overall and in the term immediately prior to affiliation.
  • At least a C in ENGRD 2700 and MATH 2940.
  • At least a C- in all completed Operations Research and Information Engineering courses.
  • Good academic standing in Cornell Engineering.

Students should prepare for affiliation well in advance, working thoughtfully and intentionally with their academic advisor for guidance and coordination.

Academic Standards

Good standing requirements for operations research and engineering:

  • Achieve a cumulative GPA of greater than or equal to 2.0
  • Achieve a cumulative GPA of greater than or equal to 2.0 in required Operations Research and Information Engineering courses
  • Receive at least C- in all required Operations Research courses, and by the end of the sixth semester, a grade of at least C- in ENGRD 2110
  • Make satisfactory progress towards a degree (a minimum of 12 credits per semester)
  • No failing grades, no in-completes
  • Any student not in Good Standing is subject to review by the Academic Standards Committee. Possible actions include Warning, Required Leave of Absence for a period specified by the Faculty; and Required Withdrawal.

Required Engineering Distributions

  • ENGRI 1XXX

    Introduction to Engineering

  • ENGRD 2700

    Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics

  • ENGRD 2110

    Objected-Oriented Programming and Data Structures

Required Major Courses

  • ORIE 3120

    Practical Tools for Operations Research, Machine Learning and Data Science

  • ORIE 3150

    Financial and Managerial Accounting

    Students can replace with MATH 3110, MATH 4130, MATH 4310, MATH 4330, or any 6000+ level ORIE course.

  • ORIE 3300

    Optimization I

  • ORIE 3310

    Optimization II

  • ORIE 3500

    Engineering Probability and Statistics II

  • ORIE 3510

    Introductory Engineering Stochastic Processes I

  • ORIE 4580

    Simulation Modeling and Analysis

  • Behavioral Science

Elective Requirements

Students must take the following electives:

  • At least 9 credits of Operations Research and Engineering electives at the 4000 level or above
  • At least 12 credits of major-approved electives (details below)
  • At least 6 credits of advisor-approved Electives
  • Liberal Studies Electives—6 courses, 18 credits minimum (see Cornell Engineering Handbook)

At least one of the courses taken must satisfy the Engineering Communications Requirement.

The Organizational Behavior requirement may be replaced with an additional 3 credits of Major Approved Electives, from either category A or B. This additional course must be outside of ORIE.

Students are allowed to replace the requirement for ORIE 3150 (Financial and Managerial Accounting) by taking at least one of the following. If a course is used to replace this requirement, then it cannot be used as an advisor approved, major approved, or ORIE elective.

  • MATH 3110 (Introduction to Analysis)
  • MATH 4130 (Honors Real Analysis)
  • MATH 4310 (Linear Algebra)
  • MATH 4330 (Honors Linear Algebra)
  • Any 6000 level ORIE course

Major Approved Electives

All major-approved electives must be technical courses numbered 2000 or above. “Technical” means that in a significant part of the course (homework, projects), students actively use their skills in mathematics, the sciences, or engineering design.
 
Major Approved Electives fall into either category A (Engineering, Science, and Mathematics) or category B (Engineering Design, Finance, and Economic Analysis). At least 6 credits must be from category A, and at least 6 credits must be from outside ORIE. Students are not required to take any credits in category B.
 
Below are lists of popular courses that may be used as Major Approved Electives. Students may petition for other courses to be allowed. Petitions go to the Director for Undergraduate Studies, who, with the Academic Standards Committee, will determine if the course meets the definition of “technical” and whether the course in in category A or B. A petition must be accompanied with a syllabus of the course indicating the textbooks used and the types of assignments that will be given. Petitions should be sent to orie-ug-support@cornell.edu.
 
Out of the 12 credits required for major approved electives, at most 3 credits (in total) can come from undergraduate research, team project courses, and TAships combined. Depending on the details of the research/project/TAship, this credit may be counted towards either Category A or Category B, as determined by the ORIE Director for Undergraduate Studies and Undergraduate Coordinator. This 3 credit limitation is applicable to those students who affiliated to the ORIE major in Fall 2023 and later. Other students should refer to the ORIE student handbook from their year of affiliation to the major. If you have any questions, please reach out to the ORIE Director for Undergraduate Studies and the Undergraduate Coordinator.

Category A: Engineering, Science, and Mathematics

  • AEM 4110

    Introduction to Econometrics (but not with Econ 3140)

  • AEP 4210

    Mathematical Physics I

  • ASTRO 3340

    Symbolic and Numerical Computing

  • BEE 2220

    Bioengineering Thermodynamics and Kinetics

  • BEE 4710

    Introduction to Groundwater

  • BEE 4880

    Applied Modeling and Simulation for Renewable Energy

  • BIOMG 3300

    Principles of Biochemistry

  • BIOMG 3310

    Principles of Biochemistry: Proteins and Metabolism

  • BIOMG 3320

    Principles of Biochemistry: Molecular Biology

  • BTRY 4270

    Survival Analysis

  • BTRY 4381

    Biomedical Data Mining and Modeling

  • CEE 4620

    Analysis and Control of Transportation Systems and Networks

  • CEE 4630

    Modeling and Optimization for Smart Infrastructure Systems

  • CEE 5980

    Intro to Decision Analysis

  • CEE 6230

    Environmental Quality Systems Analysis

  • CHEM 2080

    General Chemistry II

  • CHEM Courses

    with CHEM 2080 or 2160 as a prerequisite

  • EAS 3420

    Atmospheric Dynamics

  • EAS 4840

    Inverse Methods in the Natural Sciences

  • ECE 4450

    Computer Networks and Telecommunications

  • ECE 3530

    Introduction to Systems and Synthetic Biology

  • ECON 3140

    Introduction to Econometrics, but not with AEM 411o (ECON 3120 is not approved)

  • CS 2800

    Discrete Structures

  • CS 3420

    Embedded Systems

  • CS 4450

    Introduction to Computer Networks

  • CS 4780

    Intro to Machine Learning

  • CS 4810

    Intro to Theory of Computing

  • CS 4852

    Networks II (CS 2850, Networks, is NOT a Major Approved elective)

  • CS 5722

    Heuristic Methods for Optimization

  • FDSC 2000

    Introduction to Physiochemical and Biological Aspects of Food

  • INFO 2950

    Introduction to Data Science

  • INFO 3950

    Data Analytics for Information Science

  • MAE 3100

    Introduction to Applied Math

  • MAE 3260

    System Dynamics

  • MAE 4860

    Automotive Engineering

  • MAE 5790

    Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

  • PSYCH 4760

    Quantitative Methods 2

  • PAM 3100

    Multiple Regression Analysis

  • PAM 5690

    Regression Analysis and Managerial Forecasting

  • STSCI 3100

    Statistical Sampling

  • STSCI 4030

    Linear Models with Matrices

  • STSCI 4140

    Applied Design

  • STSCI 4520

    Statistical Computing

  • SYSEN 5300

    SysEng and Six Sigma for the Design and Operation of Reliable Systems

Category B: Engineering Design, Finance, and Economic Analysis

  • AEM 3100

    Business Statistics

  • AEM 3360

    Corporate Financial Reporting I

  • AEM 3390

    Research Methods in International Development

  • AEM 4060

    Risk Simulation and Monte Carlo Methods

  • AEM 4150

    Price Analysis

  • AEM 4160

    Strategic Pricing

  • AEM 4210

    Futures, Options and Financial Derivatives

  • AEM 4230

    Topics in Behavioral Finance

  • AEM 4260

    Fixed Income Securities

  • AEM 4280

    Valuation of Capital Investment

  • AEM 4290

    International Financial Management

  • AEM 4380

    Entrepreneurial Strategy for Technology Ventures

  • AEM 4390

    Technology Strategy

  • AEM 4410

    Marketing Research

  • AEM 4600

    Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy

  • AEM 4610

    Business Processes, Analytics and Enterprise Systems

  • AEM 4660

    Market Dynamics, Computer Simulation and Modeling

  • AEM 4670

    Investments

  • BEE 3299

    Sustainable Development

  • BEE 4010

    Renewable Energy Systems

  • BEE 4890

    Entrepreneurial Management for Engineers

  • ECON 4220

    Financial Economics

  • ECON 4610

    Industrial Organization I

  • ECON 4620

    Industrial Organization II

  • ECON 4903

    Quantitative Analysis of Economic Data

  • CEE 3610

    Introduction to Transportation Engineering

  • CEE 4530

    Research in Environmental Engineering

  • CEE 4640

    Transportation Systems Design

  • CEE 5900

    Project Management

  • CEE 5970

    Risk Analysis and Management

  • CS/INFO 2300

    Intermediate Web Design

  • HADM 3430

    Marketing Research

  • HADM 4410

    Strategic Management

  • INFO 3350

    Text Mining for History and Literature

  • INFO 4120

    Ubiquitous Computing

  • MAE 2250

    Mechanical Synthesis

  • NBA 4120

    Equity Investment Research and Analysis

  • NBA 5060

    Financial Statement Analysis

  • NBA 5380

    The Business Idea Factory (1.5 cr)

  • NBA 5061

    Comprehensive Financial Statement Analysis

  • NBA 5111

    Foundations of Financial Modeling

  • NBA 5410

    Project Management

  • NBA 5420

    Investments and Portfolio Analysis

  • NBA 5550

    Fixed Income Securities and Interest Rate Derivatives

  • NBA 6200

    Marketing Research

  • NBA 6730

    Introduction to Derivatives, Part 1

  • NBA 6740

    Introduction to Derivatives, Part 2

  • NBA 6930

    Strategy and Tactics of Pricing

  • NBA 6940

    Equity derivatives and related products

  • ORIE 4152 / ENGRG 4610

    Entrepreneurship for Engineers

  • SYSEN 5740

    Design Thinking for Complex Systems