[转载] 2006工业工程申请总结（数学专业）

hlin8119UID: 171100

发信人: speedofsound (有些东西必须相信，但其他的对我永远是谜), 信区: Abroad
标  题: 2006工业工程申请总结（数学专业）
发信站: 南京大学小百合站 (Mon Mar 27 16:38:10 2006)


背景：
02数学本科，信息与计算科学专业，专业GPA：89/100，排名：10%，GRE (General): 620+800+4.5, GRE (Math Subject): 840(94%), TOFEL: 633. 大四上赴香港科大交换一学期，美国数学建模Honorable Mention

申请结果：
Offer：
Math@MSU, Operations Research@NCSU, Applied Math and Statistics@UIC, Industrial Engineering@TAMU, Industrial and Systems Engineering@Gatech, Industrial Engineering@ASU, Math@USouthCarolina

Admission:
Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering@UIUC, Industrial Engineering@Purdue, F
inancial Math@FSU, Applied Math and Statistics@Stony Brook
Waiting List:
Applied Math@UMN, Math@UCDavis, Operations Research and Industrial Engineering@Cornell

Rejection:
Math@Rutgers, Industrial Engineering and Management Science@Northwestern, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research@Columbia, Math@RPI

Pending:
Applied Math@UMass, Applied Math@IIT, Industrial and Systems Engineering@UFL,
Math@UUtah, Applied Math@UHouston, Applied Math and Statistics@JHU, Applied Math@VT


申请中一个关键性的问题：
研究生的录取是一个综合评价的过程，这中间包括毕业学校，推荐人，推荐力度，GPA，PS， GRE和TOFEL成绩等等。所以不用因为某一方面的部优秀因素而过度担心录取的结果。但是这些因素中前面的几条都是相对更重要一些的。

关于GRE和TOFEL：
如果要申请数学专业的话，Sub很重要，像UMN，它的应数很好，而它今年来录取主要就只看Sub，至少05年只要Sub上95%，TOFEL上620，就可以免申请费，而最后这些被免费的申请者都拿到了Offer，这个系明确在网页上些他们不看重General的成绩。IE（工业工程）方面，几乎不要数学Sub，我现在只知道Gatech的IE下有个计算最优化的方向要数学的Sub。General考试不是很重要，一般来说不要太差就好了，正如我上面说的，这是一个综合评价的过程，Verbal最好能上450，不过400也没必要重考了。Quantitative最好上780，Analytical Writing最好上3.5。

在GRE的准备方面，Sub主要参考一下Princeton Review的Cracking GRE 的那本书，第二版就够了。General主要就是背单词和做题，GRE在90年代末期出过的几本书都不错，每种题型有一本书，我现在只记得填空好像是杨继写的，类比和反义是一本，阅读是一本。我是04年考的General，感觉大部分词汇题那几本参考书上都有。没有必要去上新东方，我和周围的一些朋友都是通过这种方法来准备的，最后结果都不错。另外，不用在General上花费太多时间，主要还是要学好专业课，毕竟出去以后是做学术研究而不是背单词。

TOFEL最好能上600，这对申请TA比较重要。TSE最好考，而且要上50，就IE来说，如果有50的TSE，UIUC，Purdue都很有大得多的希望拿到TA。

关于选专业：
数学系可以申请的方向是很多的，数学，应用数学，统计，工业工程，金融工程等等。但是金融工程一般都是Master，而且是Professional Master， 所以一般都是自费。金融工程的PhD一般都是在IE或者数学系下。个人觉得如果对这块感兴趣的话，还是尽量读Master后直接到工业界工作，学术界这一块职位今年似乎不是很多。

关于IE：
总的来说，IE主要是介于工业和管理之间的学科，主要的研究领域有：最优化（Optimization），应用概率以及随机模型(Applied Probability and Stochastic Models)，物流和
供应链(Logistics and Supply Chain)，决策分析(Decision Analysis)，仿真(Simulati
on)。一些学校还包括金融工程(Financial Engineeing)，人力因素(Human Factors)这些
方向。IE现在的应用已经由传统的服务制造业扩宽至金融业，IT，物流等领域。关于IE，有一个有趣的小video ，它在下面网页的下方有链接：http://www.engr.pitt.edu/industrial/pages/aboutie_whatisit.html。这个网页上也有关于IE的一些介绍。IE研究生比较喜欢招有数学或工科背景的人，所以除了工程管理的本科生外，EE，ChemE，ME和数学的人都可以申请。但是相对数学来说，IE要拿到全奖要难一些。

关于选校：
一定要把距离拉开，各个档次的学校都申一些。 另外，排名低一些的学校并不一定是拿来保底的好学校。通常这些学校知道给了你Offer你也可能不回去，所以也不一定会给你offer。建议选那些排名不是很高，而且以前招过这个系学生的学校来作为保底学校。保底学校不要选太多了，如果你申20所的话，5所来保底差不多了。排名主要是看专业排名，学术声望排名可以参考一下。我自己的情况是IE主申前二十的（排名靠前的学校更喜欢有数学背景的学生），数学主申二十到五十的。大概定下个范围后，就可以具体的看系里的主页了，这个过程很重要，有些学校也许排名很高，但他的强项也许和你的兴趣有出入，比如PSU的IE排在前五但是他的强项在制造业，我对这一块的兴趣不是很大。另外，学校的地理位置很重要，尤其是对学工程而言，在大城市附近毕业后找工作也会容易一些。

关于推荐信：
美国的老师都知道大部分推荐信都是学生写好老师签字的，所以一般的推荐信意义不大。但是如果推荐人在目标学校有熟识的教授，那么直接的推荐（例如教授之间直接的email或电话沟通）会非常非常有用。

关于PS：
由于没有什么研究经验，我的PS只要就是表达我对IE或者数学研究的兴趣。这可以通过你对一些小事的想法（例如我在IE的PS中写到了我对一个模拟类游戏如何来实现一个复杂的系统模拟的兴趣）也可以通过你的一些经历（例如我们在参加美国建模竞赛中是如何解决问题的，采用了什么思路，遇到什么困难，如何解决的，重要的不是你得了什么奖，而是你学到了什么，你的思考过程）来展现你的兴趣和研究潜力。我有两份PS，一份IE一份数学，对于同方向的不同学校，PS大部分都是一样的，就是在最后一段写一下你为什么选择这个学校，它的哪些地方吸引了你。另外下面的这个网页在我写PS的过程中对我的帮助非常大，强烈推荐：http://www.essayedge.com/graduate/essayadvice/course/，但是不推荐EssayEdge提供的服务，我周围有两个朋友都用过，效果似乎并不好。

下面是我申请IE的PS， 以作参考：

The moment I learned the idea of simulation in my junior year, I suddenly real
ized how my favorite PC game, ‘Roller Coaster Tycoon’ worked. How did its ga
me programmers know when Jimmy would enter the virtual park? When Tony would r
ide a roller coaster, which one he would choose and what his reaction would be
? Simply put, what magic did the game programmers use to replicate such a comp
licated system so vividly? I guess the answer must be discrete simulation. Sev
eral probability distributions, once expressed in the form of computer algorit
hms, revealed their essential control over this virtual system. Hooked by the
fantastic technique, I discovered the strong power of combination of probabili
ty and computation in solving practical problems. The moment I learned the ide
a of simulation, I recalled that report and understood what it was about.

During my last year in high school, a report changed my idea of mathematics an
d greatly influenced my decision to choose it as my undergraduate major. The r
eport claimed that, unlike in China, many American corporations regularly cons
ulted professors of mathematics department with problems they confronted in th
eir everyday operations within industry or business, and actively employed sug
gestions received to enhancing their efficiency and quality. Although I had no
idea of what suggestions math could offer to industry, this sense of possibil
ities still drove me to start my higher education as a math student in Nanjing
University.

The answer to this conundrum came in my junior year, when I began studying cou
rses like Operations Research, Probability, Mathematical Statistics and Mathem
atical Modeling. Besides the knowledge itself, I derived great pleasure from w
itnessing the whole process of how abstract mathematical theories gradually ev
olved into interesting solutions or methods with real-world concerns. For exam
ple, we spent almost the first whole month studying measure theories in this s
emester’s Advanced Probability Theory course. It was hard to sense any smell
of practical use from those “boring” subjects at first sight. However, once
probability was introduced as a special measure built on sigma-algebra, all ou
r previous preparation immediately paid off as we could directly derive many b
eautiful and useful conclusions from previous abstract theories. To me, this i
s the glamour of applied sciences. Those easily understandable conclusions are
built upon strict logic deductions that are actually not so obvious. Studies
in these fields are expeditions starting from curiosity and imagination, and e
nding with surprise and satisfaction.

The satisfactions I derived from math extended beyond those of classroom. My s
olid math background and active thinking style paid off at this year's America
n Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM), when our team tackled a problem of d
etermining the optimal number of tollbooths in a barrier-toll plaza. My main w
ork involved building queuing models to simulate the vehicles' sojourn and the
n using the simulation output results to find the optimal configuration of tol
lbooths. One of the main challenges I faced was how to construct an algorithm
to search for optimal solutions. After much investigation, I gave up my initia
l thought of a search in a multiple dimensional space because of its complexit
y and heavy computation burden. Instead, I constructed another simpler algorit
hm which drew on techniques of Linear Search and Multiple Objective Optimizati
on. This second method turned out to work very well. This experience made me r
ealize that solutions to industrial problems entailed in nature the tradeoffs
between efficiency and feasibility. What's more, math modeling should be a con
tinuous process rather than a complete representation of reality. In short, we
need to make consistent modifications to improve our approximations. When our
solution finally got an Honorable Mention, the highest award our department h
ad ever achieved, I was pleased not only at the award, but more at my successf
ul endeavor to combine abstract theories with computational techniques to solv
e real world problems.

Based on my former academic performances, I got the opportunity to study at Ho
ng Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as an exchange student th
is semester with full scholarship support. Currently, I am taking a course fro
m Professor *** on Financial Mathematics. Those theories such as Black-Scholes
Formula show me how mathematics, such as Stochastic PDE has stretched its sup
port to social sciences and has reached fruitful results, which are not only b
eautiful in theory but also useful in practice. In addition, during my first m
onth, I enjoyed an opportunity to work as an assistant to a professor with int
erest in Optimization. This precious access to cutting-edge research topic sho
wed me the fundamental role math had been playing in innovative problem-solvin
g methodologies. Conducting OR research is like gradually bridging the gaps be
tween creative ideas and abstract theories. Getting involved within this proce
ss by myself is much more interesting than just learning them as a student.

Once I know where my true calling lies, I am earnestly committed to graduate s
tudy in Operations Research. *** is my dream school for academic growth. First
of all, *** has the world’s best professors in both Stochastic Systems and O
ptimization, two of my favorite fields. Secondly, ***’s balanced emphasis in
both tackling critical, real-world problems and new methodologies in research
topics are perfectly consistent with my research interests. Thirdly, after gra
duation, I desire to be a professor in a research university or researcher for
industry, where I can not only immerse myself in the enjoyment of creative wo
rk, but also share that happiness with my students and colleagues. ***’s outs
tanding reputation in either academic or professional world would equip me wit
h unbeatenable background.

What I cherished most in my past four year’s mathematical study is a strict t
raining in logical and quantitative analysis, which has equipped me with stron
g abilities to adapt to new academic world very quickly. Now this training has
raised me up to an arena to face this Information Age’s most challenging pro
blems and give me the honor to conquer them with the Queen of Science’s compa
ny.

关于申请邮箱：
不要使用hotmail的邮箱，我身边已经有两个同学由于hotmail的邮箱原因而没收到面试通
知和Offer，gmail和yahoo的都不错

关于申请时间计划：
在十一月底之前把Sub，成绩单，推荐信，PS，简历全部弄好，大部分截止日期是从12月15日到来年的二三月份，不过大部分的材料都是在十二月和一月寄出。只要在截止日期前就好了，有时晚一两天问题也不大。另外，录取过程不同学校不一样，有的学校，像Gatech的IE是所有材料都集中到二月中旬才开始审材料，早到的材料没有优势，而有些学校，像UIUC的SEE是基于rolling basis的，材料一批一批的申，Offer发完了就没有了。所以时间紧的话最好把这一点弄清楚，有些系是写在主页上，有些就得自己去问小秘了。

关于申请结果：
基本上说来，近几年我们系的情况都是每年有6，7个人申请，最后都会有Offer，今年大概
有20个人申请，现在大部分也都有了Offer。我感觉，只要定位准确，我们系的同学如果申
请了20个学校，最后一个offer都没有的可能是很小的。但是毕竟还是有一些运气的因素，
而且有很多很琐碎的事，所以整个申请过程还是一个很辛苦的过程。

最后给一个链接，应该说当初要是我没有看到这个网页，我也没有勇气申请IE，虽然我对
这个专业很感兴趣，但是毕竟近几年我们系申请IE或者OR的人不多。感谢Isabel的这个很有用的总结，也希望以后有更多数学系的同学能学习工业工程：https://bbs.gter.net/bb
s/viewthread.php?tid=267782&fpage=1&highlight=Isabel%2B2005%C9%EA%C7%EB%D7%DC%
BD%E1
--
All that noise and all that sound
All those places I have found
And birds go flying at the speed of sound
To show ya how it all began
Birds came flyin from the underground
If you could see it then you'd understand
※ 来源:．南京大学小百合站 http://bbs.nju.edu.cn [FROM: 222.94.3.137][+reset]

※ 修改:．speedofsound 於 Mar 30 07:24:18 2006 修改本文．[FROM: 222.94.3.125]

冰封火山UID: 167657

牛啊

hlin8119UID: 171100

是啊牛人, EACHYU加精吧,呵呵

moonwwzUID: 2200508

niu

vertigo-dazzleUID: 2173390

这么多OFFER,lz做最后决定了吗