University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
571 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Here are answers to recurrent questions related to OPIM undergraduate advising. If you don't see the answer to your question here, feel free to contact me.
Course planning for the next semester is generally done during the previous semester, so we often have a sense of what will be offered. You can contact me with these types of inquiries. These tentantive schedules are subject to change, however. Historically, here is the frequency of availability of the OPIM undergraduate courses:
If a course is not listed here, it may not be offered any more. Contact me if this raises a concern.
In general, you should verify that you have the prerequisites for the class and, if so, contact the instructor directly for permission. However, to save time in this process you should note that:
You can take up to a full credit of independent study in OPIM and have that count as part of a concentration (or elsewhere in your course "worksheet"). To set up an independent study, you need to have a faculty sponsor. Please recognize that faculty are very busy, especially during the teaching semester, and so may be unable to accommodate your request. Your best bet is to contact faculty that you have taken a class with before and work in the area related to the topic of your independent study.
Once you have a faculty sponsor, you have to get your faculty sponsor to create a section of OPIM399 and permit you into it. From that point, how the independent study is managed and graded is between you and the faculty sponsor.
Yes... a number of us regularly participate in engineering (senior design) or Management and Technology society projects. You should contact faculty that you have had as an instructor or who work in the area related to your projects. However, please recognize that faculty are very busy during the semester and these projects are especially time consuming to supervise, so they may not be able to accommodate your request.
Generally, no. There are only two circumstances that would allow you to complete your degree in Wharton without taking OPIM101. First, if you are in the Management and Technology Program (M&T), OPIM101 is waived entirely. Second, if you are a dual degree student between Wharton and another school at Penn and have evidence of a suitable technology background, I can grant a waiver of OPIM101 upon completion of a higher level OPIM class (to be approved). Completing another introductory computation class outside of OPIM (e.g. CSE110) is neither necessary nor sufficient to qualify you for this waiver. To initiate this process, you should visit me during office hours or send me an e-mail to discuss your situation. Students who were either M&T or dual degree and dropped out of these programs as juniors or seniors may still be eligible for these waivers but these types of situations will be evaluated individually. If you do not fall into one of these categories, OPIM101 waivers cannot be granted.
If the course is eligible for transfer generally, I am responsible for handing transfers of undergraduate courses that might be equivalent to OPIM courses. To get a transfer you need to get me the transfer form physically, and must provide me with a syllabus for the course (in English), the OPIM course you think most closely corresponds to the course you wish to transfer, and the grade that you received. In some cases the syllabus does not have sufficient information to determine whether a course transfers, in which case I may ask for other materials. You can bring all this by during my regular office hours, or leave the materials in my box (and/or e-mail me anything you have digitally, other than the form). I will let you know by e-mail the outcome of the evaluation and where you can get the signed form.
The instructor of the course has final say for all exceptional circumstances regarding course enrollment. If a course is full, you should contact the instructor directly. If you have some special circumstance and you feel that it would be helpful for me to assist making your case to the instructor, I'm happy to help but it nearly all cases that is not necessary.
In the past OPIM221 and OPIM220 were separate classes. However, increasingly these courses became indistinguishable and were merged. Since some instructors were used to the OPIM221 number and others had used the OPIM220 number, we have apparently taught both over the last few years even though they are the same course. We have now standardized on OPIM220 as the introductory operations class. If your requirements say you need OPIM221, take OPIM220 and request a waiver from me to get it counted as part of your concentration.