2023 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Operations Research in the Far Western US Region

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2020-2021, 1,698 people earned their degree in operations research, making the major the 203rd most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, operations research graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $84,787 and had an average of $14,538 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Far Western US region, there were 368 operations research graduates with average earnings and debt of $45,988 and $16,250 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 202 operations research graduates with average earnings and debt of $61,693 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in operations research. This a ranking of the schools where the largest percentage of students has enrolled in operations research.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region” list to help you make the college decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for far western us region master’s degree operations research students.

Top 3 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Operations Research in the Far Western US Region

1

Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, California

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Naval Postgraduate School. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region list. Monterey, California is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out masters’s operations research degrees to 85 students in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Operations Research at Naval Postgraduate School

2

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, California

#3 overall quality in Far Western US

Out of the 3 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University of California - Berkeley landed the #2 spot on the list. UC Berkeley is a public institution located in Berkeley, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 111 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Operations Research at University of California - Berkeley

3

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

#4 overall quality in Far Western US

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Southern California. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Far Western US Region list. University of Southern California is a private not-for-profit institution located in Los Angeles, California. The school has a large population, and it awarded 6 masters’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 91%. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.3% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full University of Southern California Operations Research Report

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for Operations Research

Notes and References

References

• 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 our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.