Hi, I'm just finishing Southampton's MSc. It's the only one of the 5 main ones (the other four are LSE, Lancaster, Warwick and Strathclyde) to be based in the maths dept., the others are all based on softer OR. However, when I said I wasn't into soft OR at interview, they told me that was OK because I had strong reasons but that most of their people came from a softer OR background. Hence you should be fine with either Warwick or Lancaster on your CV, although of the top of my head I'd say Warwick has the edge in terms of prestige. I didn't do the CIMA course because I didn't know about it and still don't other than having heard of it, so maybe you should try and inquire at the institutions to which you're applying and your careers service.Finally, I briefly considered applying to the Ecole des Mines in Nancy who seem to have a pretty good OR programme, until I realised that their list of 20-odd compulsory courses was similar to Southampton's list of optional courses from which you pick 6. In other words, loads of work - the French do have a reputation not messing around, especially at the top "Grandes Ecoles".
