David Rimshnick '05

David Rimshnick chose ORIE because he was more interested in solving business problems than physical problems. Cornell’s program appealed to him because it offers the opportunity for in-depth study in several fields. “For instance, because we have the Johnson Graduate School of Management, many students choose to follow a finance path,” Rimshnick explains. “Others emphasize computer science–type specializations, like those in information technology or optimization—and Cornell has abundant resources for that. Many students go into manufacturing specializations, and Cornell’s other engineering programs provide opportunities to gain background in that as well.”

Rimshnick, who plans to someday start his own business, says his favorite ORIE courses focused on optimization, “as they combine a lot of critical thinking with economic and computational concepts. I’ve also enjoyed courses like Simulation, Information Technology, and Heuristic Methods for Optimization.” His minor in applied mathematics required him to take several courses outside his major, mostly computer science classes that he found “very enjoyable.”

Cornell invites students to choose from among more than 4,000 undergraduate offerings, so Rimshnick also took courses in government, economics, and wine-tasting. Undergraduate research is encouraged, and Rimshnick worked on one project to study airline crew scheduling methods and another that developed computational laboratories for optimization classes. His non-academic activities included serving as president of Acacia Fraternity and singing in the Cornell University Chorale.