2023 Most Focused Colleges for Operations Research in the Southwest Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region” ranking - to help you make that 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 Southwest region, there were 70 operations research graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in operations research. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their operations research program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Operations Research Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for southwest region operations research students.

Top 2 Most Focused Colleges for Operations Research in the Southwest Region

1

Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas

#10 overall quality in Southwest

$62,901 Average Early-Career Earnings

$21,548 Average Student Debt

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Methodist University landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Dallas, Texas, this fairly large private not-for-profit school handed out 43 degrees to qualified ’s operations research students in 2020-2021.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.1% 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%. With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Operations Research at Southern Methodist University

2

Rice University
Houston, Texas

#1 overall quality in Southwest

$64,867 Average Early-Career Earnings

$11,733 Average Student Debt

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools Highly Focused on Operations Research Major in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Rice University landed the #2 spot on the list. Houston, Texas is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s operations research degrees to 12 students in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Operations Research at Rice University

• Most Focused 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.