Two multi-criteria decision making approaches were implemented in this paper for selecting a U.S. university considering the industrial engineering doctorate degree as a case study. The Preference Selection Index (PSI) and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were these approaches. A total of 37 universities and 20 attributes were considered. The attributes were related to the university reputation, location, financial, and ease of admission. In this paper, the PSI model was initially constructed and its results were adopted in the AHP model. Data of this paper were obtained from the US News and World Report, Times Higher Education (THE) and other well-known organizations. Results proved that the PSI approach could be used in decisions with large number of alternatives and attributes, and the PSI model was able in making the AHP model requirements easier, by reducing the criteria and alternatives. In both the PSI and the AHP models, the university reputation had the highest preferences of students, followed by the ease of admission, financial and then location. Sensitivity analyses for the PSI and AHP models were performed to evaluate the accuracy of the results. Results of this study could be applied in other students’ disciplines for finding a suitable university.