Help Deciding/Choosing Major

College Majors
1

Hi, I am currently attending my local community college where i’ll be starting my second year this fall (i’m going to be doing 3 years in total). Over this summer I changed my major from business admin to construction management. I chose construction management because i’ve always loved and been interested in real estate and everything that has to do with houses. I decided i want to be involved in the process somehow, which is why i chose cm.
I am kind of having second thoughts about this major and considering real estate development or urban planning. My biggest problem with real estate development is that only two schools in california offer it: ucsd (72% acceptance rate to the major, 54% to the school) and usc (3% acceptance rate to the majors, 24% to the school) and im already doubting if ill even get accepted to those schools. As for urban planning, I don’t know if it’ll be the right major for me because i want to focus only on houses and buildings and not on social issues.
From what I’ve researched and read, i think real estate development is my career goal but i also like and am fine with sticking to construction management
Here are my thoughts and options:
Just construction management
Construction management to real estate development
Urban planning undergrad real estate development masters
real estate development undergrad

Which route should I take? or are there any majors or careers I haven’t considered? (i don’t want to do just be a real estate agent and i don’t want a bachelors in real estate)
Any advice or information would be really appreciated.

2

I don’t know that if you like real estate that you’ll also like construction management. Managing and selling real estate, or even real estate development, isn’t really the same as overseeing the process of getting houses built.

You don’t have to major in real estate development to go into real estate development. A major in business - or even something else unrelated - would be just fine; you just have to look for internships and other ways to get involved in the business.

But you’re naive to think that by going into real estate management and/or construction that you can ignore social issues. Houses and buildings are used by people, and the movements and behaviors of people affect where they’re built. For example, when you build new housing there have to be enough schools and classrooms for all the children they’ll attract; you have to suit the type and cost of housing to the kind of people who will want to live in the neighborhood (no sense in building luxury condos in a low-income neighborhood unless it’s gentrifying, which you’d also have to know about anyway), and you have to pay attention how changes in social norms and traditions affect the housing market (like the fact that millennials have more debt and lower pay than their predecessors, so won’t be buying houses en masse).

1 Like