Hello everybody,

I am finishing up my undergraduate degree in mathematics this year and have started looking at masters programs. I find my self most interested in applied mathematics as of right now; operations research is looking the most appealing as I do not want to work in finance or biostatistics (looked interesting for a while, but I soon realized it was mathematically kind of boring and mostly biological stuff--at least the programs I saw).

So, my question is; what kind of mathematics classes / programs should I look for when I am searching through graduate degrees in applied math?

I know its the study of optimization, but I don't know what else to look for. A lot of programs I have looked at don't really come out and say anything about operations research. Although, a few do; such as, U of I in Urbana-champaign, which I am very interested in.

I don't know if this would help, but here are the courses I have really liked as an undergrad so far: Linear algebra (working on it know ha), differential equation, laplace transforms (1 unit lecture), vector calc, mathematical stats, and regression theory.

My "transition" to advanced math course was pretty hard for me and I am sure real analysis and abstract algebra are gonna kick my a** also, but I still find myself very interested in these subjucts.

Classes I really want to take: Stochastic process, graph theory, propability / cominatorics.

Thats just where I'm comming form. I have never had any real formal training in the above classes, but I have read about a few of those topics and was pretty interested in learning more.

I guess this brings me to another question: how the **** do I know what I want to do when everything seems interesting? I want to be comfortable and make decent money in industry earlier in life and then probably teach at the JC level after I retire ha.

Any advice would be appreciated

thank you!