Program Updates
Due to changes being made to the College of Business and Economics admission standards, the Department of Decision Sciences will be making some minor revisions to the criteria for admission to the concentration as a full major. The revisions will be effective Fall 2019. The primary revision is that applicants’ GPA in business courses completed at Western (CBE GPA) will no longer be evaluated. All applicants for fall 2019 and future quarters (including OPS pre-majors who declared prior to fall 2019) will be evaluated based on the revised criteria.
More information on the admission criteria and process can be found in the 'Admission and Declaration Process' section of this page.
During the spring 2019 application process the average GPA of admitted students was:
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3.29 WWU cumulative
Why Operations Management?
It is critical for organizations to be effective and efficient with their operations. Operations managers are concerned with each step in providing a service or product from acquisition of the raw materials and component parts to delivery to the customer. They determine what equipment, labor, tools, facilities, materials, energy, and information are required, how these can best be obtained, and how they are used to satisfy the requirements of the market place.
Career Outlook
With an Operations Management major, numerous career options are available such as:
You can find recent graduates' employment information on the Career Services Center webpage.
Admission and Declaration Process
Due to capacity constraints not all students are accepted to the concentration as full majors. Admission is competitive and academic performance is the primary decision factor.
Application Deadlines
The College of Business & Economics has quarterly application deadlines for all majors and concentrations excluding Economics and Manufacturing Supply Chain Management. To view the current deadlines please click on the link below.
Application Process
- Apply to be a pre-major* by following the steps on the Prospective Students page
- When you are eligible for full major status you will be contacted via your Western email and asked to complete an additional application which includes a proposed plan of study
- The requirements for becoming a full major can be found on the Moving From Pre-Major to Full Major page
*Students who are eligible for full major status at the time they apply will be contacted via their Western email after their application has been processed and asked to complete the additional application. No priority is given to students who apply as full majors instead of pre-majors.
Admission Criteria
A Decision Sciences faculty admission committee will review all applications submitted by the deadline. Admission is based on:
- Space available in the concentration
- Past academic performance
- Western GPA is the primary factor considered but other factors may include:
- Performance in business courses taken at Western
- Trends in academic performance
- Performance in courses taken at other institutions as listed on the Transfer Equivalency Report
- Western GPA is the primary factor considered but other factors may include:
- Admission priority will be given to students with the best academic performance relative to the rest of the applicant pool.
- Academic performance will be the primary decision factor, but other factors may be considered (e.g., rationale for pursuing field of study, related work experience, student leadership, etc.).
Admission Notification
Students who apply for admission will be notified of their status via their Western email prior to the first day of registration for the next quarter. For example, if you apply for spring quarter admission, you will be notified of your admission status prior to the start of spring quarter registration.