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Admissions: Ph.D.

Please visit IEOR Ph.D. January 2025 Semester Admissions Page for latest announcements on registration, test and interviews.

For International Students:

International students desirous of pursuing Ph.D. in IEOR may apply through the International Relations Office of IIT Bombay. Financial Assistance is available for selected candidates. We encourage international students to apply for the IIT Bombay institute TA fellowships for our PhD programs. For more details, please visit this page.

 

For Indian Students:

General information (application eligibility/ procedure/ categories) along with a list of FAQs about the admission procedures are listed below. Visit the link at the top of this page for this year's specific guidelines.

Eligibility

Applicants must have first class or 60% marks (55% for SC/ST) in:

  • Master's degree in any branch of Engineering with adequate exposure to Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.
  • M.Sc. in Mathematics, Statistics or Operations Research.
  • Bachelor's degree in any branch of Engineering with an excellent academic record.


NOTE: Candidate with Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Master's degree in Science must have a valid GATE score to become eligible for Teaching/Research Assistantships provided by the Institute.

Application Categories

Broadly, there are two types of applicants: 

  • Full-time Research Scholar (usually stay on-campus and work full-time towards the Ph.D. degree)
  • Part-time Research Scholar (usually employed with some organization and work part time towards the Ph.D. degree)

Within these are different categories of applicants, which should be indicated in the Application Form.

  • Full-Time Research Scholar
    • TA             Teaching Assistantship
    • RA            Research Assistantship
    • SW            Sponsored Full-time
    • SF             Self-financed
    • FA             Govt./ Semi-Govt. Fellowship Awardees (QIP, CSIR, UGC, DAE, DST, DBT, NBHM, etc)
  • Part-Time Research Scholar
    • IS              Institute Faculty / Staff
    • PS            Project Staff
    • EX            Sponsored for External Registration
    • CT            Candidate from Colleges/ Education Institutes (in and around Mumbai)

Application Procedure 

  1. Visit IITB admissions page for the latest Information Brochure, Application Forms, and Admission Schedule.
  2. Follow the instructions on the admissions page to fill in the online application form.
  3. A written test will be conducted to evaluate the quantitative ability of the candidates. There will be an interview for shortlisted candidates.  The dates for the test  and interview will be announced on the IIT admissions page.
  4. International students interested in applying for a Ph.D. should follow the rules and instructions listed at the IIT-B International Relations webpage.

Written Test

The written test will be based on the topics related to operations research, such as: optimization, applied probability, stochastic processes, statistics and algorithms.  It will be designed to test your basic understanding and aptitude for research.

A partial list of topics along with suggested references (The list is only illustrative and not exhaustive. There are several other books and references for these topics.)

  • Basic topics in engineering mathematics, calculus, linear algebra, probability & statistics, algorithms, logic, etc.
  • Operations Research (Linear programming, network flow models, queueing theory, simulation, etc.)
    • Taha, H.A., Operations Research, Prentice-Hall India, 2003.
    • Winston, Wayne L., Operations Research: Algorithms & Applications, Thomson Learning, 2004.
    • Wagner, H.M., Principles of Operations Research, Prentice-Hall India, 2007.
    • Hillier, F.S. and Lieberman, G.J., Introduction to Operations Research, McGraw Hill, 2006.
  • Applied probability, stochastic process and statistics
    • Ross, Sheldon M., Introduction to Probability Models, CBS Publishers, 2006.
    • Papoulis, A., and S. Unnikrishna Pillai, Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, Tata-McGraw Hill, 2002.
    • Ross, Sheldon M., Introduction to Probability & Statistics for Engineers and Scientists, Academic Press Elsevier, 1999.
  • Optimization (linear & nonlinear programming, integer programming, network optimization, etc.)
    • Chong, E.K.P, and S.H. Zak, An Introduction to optimization, John Wiley & Sons, 2001
    • Rao, S.S., Engineering Optimization: Theory and Practice, New Age International, 2001
    • Bazaraa, M.S., J.S. Jarvis, and H.D. Sherali, Linear Programming and Network Flows, John Wiley & Sons, 2006

Click here to view some sample questions that have appeared in the past written-test papers.

Interview

Candidates who perform well in the written test will be shortlisted for an interview with the IEOR faculty. The interviews will take place on the day of the test itself or the next day. The questions in the interview are aimed at testing capabilities of the candidates with respect to understanding, reasoning and explaining technical concepts related to IEOR. The candidates may be asked about their future goals, motivation and past experiences related to IE and OR.

Documents Required on the Day of Test and Interview

  • All candidates must bring the following documents:
    1. Curriculum vitae,
    2. Statement of Purpose,
    3. M.Tech./ M.Sc. thesis report (if any),
    4. Published papers (if any), and
    5. all other relevant certificates/ documents.
  • Candidates in the FA category must bring a valid, confirmed FA (CSIR /UGC / etc) fellowship, and required to bring the necessary documents during interview.

  • Candidates in the External (EX) category are required to bring original sponsorship letter from their employer and bio-data of supervisor from their parent organisation where they will be doing their research work.

  • Candidates (TA/RA) under category of ST/SC & OBC(Non Creamy Layer) are also required to bring original caste certificates at the time of interview.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.