Carnegie Mellon University

Requirements for the Ph.D. in Operations Management

Ph.D. students in Operations Management must fulfill all of the general Tepper School Ph.D. requirements, in addition to any area specific requirements. 

A normal course load involves taking 144 units during the first two years, including core Operations Management courses and a minor area of concentration. The purpose of this minor requirement is to broaden the students' knowledge to make them capable of teaching a wider range of courses and to enhance their research capabilities. 

The needs and preferences of individuals are recognized; therefore, the courses they take can vary. Examples of areas of concentration for the minor requirement are Probability and Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Management, Finance and Economics. At least 18 units should be taken in the minor area. 

Students with appropriate preparation prior to their entry to the program may choose to take the qualifying exams prior to the third semester, however, they must take the entire set of qualifiers in the Operations Management area of study.

Tracks:

The OM PhD Program is organized into three tracks:

(I)            Modeling and Methodology
(II)           Modeling and Theoretical Analysis
(III)          Modeling and Empirical Analysis 

The courses and qualifiers are organized according to these tracks, as illustrated in the following tables.

Track I

Track II

Track III

Linear Programming (LP)

LP

LP

Dynamic Programming (DP)

DP

DP

Performance Modeling (PM)

PM

PM

Integer Programming (IP)

IP or NO-I

IP or NO-I

Network Optimization I (NO-I)

Microeconomics I (Micro I)

Micro I

Network Optimization II (NO-II) or Convex Analysis (CA)

Microeconomics II (Micro II)

 

Advanced Integer Programming (AIP)

EM I

Microeconomics II or Econometrics I (EM I)

EM I

EM II

Foundations of OM

Foundations of OM

Foundations of OM

Research Topics in OM

Research Topics in OM

Research Topics in OM

Qualifying Exams (Questions):

Track I

Track II

Track III

LP

LP

LP

DP

DP

DP

PM

PM

PM

IP

IP or NO-I

IP or NO-I

NO-I

Microeconomics Question

(Micro I, Micro II)

Econometrics Question

(EM I, EM II)

NO-II or CA

 

 

AIP

 

 

Foundations of OM

Foundations of OM

Foundations of OM