<p>I would think it was pretty cool to be in real estate, and I want to live/go to school in a large city, plus I heard successful developers make the big bucks. I know most people who become developers or whatever get their masters in RED, but what if you get your B.S.?</p>
<p>I've been looking at this program:
Real</a> Estate and Economic Development (B.S.)</p>
<p>Anyone have any general knowledge on programs like these? Is it a safe major? Any good input would be fab!</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>Historically, masters degrees have not been necessary for those trying to break into real estate. This is because it is such an entreprenurial industry. Today, more and more real estate professionals are getting their Masters and you will quite likely want to do so, but if you become a successful young developer, it's likely that you will never do so. Most who do get their Masters probably get an MBA, but there are some MRED/MRealEstate degrees which are comparable to MBAs. Some of the other Masters programs can be useful but are a little lower level.</p>
<p>If I were interested in real estate out of undergrad, I would primarily be concerned with the real estate alumni base from that university (if the University has a Real Estate Center, it's likely that you could easily find a big list of Alumni). Real Estate is all about networking and having that alumni base is key (also, it tells you that you can get a job from that school). In addition to a real estate degree like the one you presented, I would also consider real estate finance or a plain finance degree. It would also be nice if the school is in a city where it would be easy to network with professionals as well as land part time internships.</p>
<p>I have a buddy that graduated from the Cornell Hotel School which offers a real-estate finance concentration (have to dig deep on their website to find the course work) and he started his own development company a couple of years after graduating.</p>
<p>As for the program you mentioned, the course options look great, but I can't comment on the University itself. Also, if you look at the degree plan you can see that it is essentially a combination of a business degree and courses from other colleges within the University. One should be able to accomplish the same thing with a finance degree just by taking additional real estate related courses from other colleges (ie take a real estate law course, take a public policy course, some urban planning courses, an architecture course, perhaps an engineering course, etc).</p>
<p>Of course, there's the old standby undergrad Wharton. It has a real estate concentration of which Ivanka Trump is an alumnus.</p>
<p>And the Donald himself is a Wharton grad (Economics w finance concentration). Of course, both the Donald and Ivanka had something far more valuable: connections.</p>
<p>Wharton does have the best real estate program but there are other good ones. Since Real Estate is such a social/networking industry, it is a good idea to consider the location of the school relative to where you would like to live upon graduation. For instance, if you attended Cornell, it would be more difficult to network with professionals in California than it would be for someone attending USC...and vice versa for those interested in working in the North East. If you like Chicago, a school like Wisconsin should be considered.</p>
<p>That being said, it is likely that Wharton grads will have the most opportunities and will have them throughout the country. However, if you know where you want to live, then the no-brainer choice may be a school not named Wharton.</p>