Students must choose one approved course from the three different categories (Optimization, Probability, and Machine Learning/Statistics).

Qualifying Process: By the end of a student’s first semester at MIT, doctoral students must choose three courses they would like to declare as their Qualifying Courses.

Qualifying Process and General ExaminationĪll students enrolled in an ORC doctoral program must complete the Qualifying Process and receive a passing score on the General Examination. You’ll write a thesis based on the independent research you conduct under the guidance of our expert faculty.

Option 3: Take part in a class, for which you’ll build and implement OR models that have practical applications.Īnd, you’ll conduct in-depth research on a topic that complements your academic interests and career goals.

Option 2: Undertake a project with an ORC faculty member, either as part of a supervised research activity or as an extra part of a regular course offering.

Option 1: Participate in a summer internship, during which you’ll create OR models that address a real-world problem.

You’ll put OR theory into practice through valuable, hands-on learning experiences, completing one of the following: You’ll take eight graduate-level classes that have been approved by the ORC co-directors, including at least two courses in optimization, at least three in applied probability and statistics, and at least one in OR modeling.

In addition to the writing competency requirements, our rigorous curriculum includes challenging coursework, action learning, and innovative research.

All doctoral students must complete the general degree track requirements those who choose an optional degree track will have additional, specialized requirements to fulfill. We offer a general degree track as well as three optional degree tracks in operations management, networked systems, and analytics. MIT’s doctoral degree (PhD) program in operations research (OR) provides you with thorough understanding of the theory of OR while teaching you to how to develop and apply OR methods in practice.

Phd operational research