<p>I'm a biology major (who graduated) and would like to take a peek into the real estate development field. If I like it, I'd like to apply to business school. But, I don't know what I should do to get in the field; I have no business background whatsoever. What can you suggest? (My question is vague because my knowledge of this area is vague.)</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>i'm also curious about this. Aside from recruiters from a few dealmaking firms whose names have the word "capital" in them, i've never seen much explanation for how real estate investment firms or development firms do business or recruit. any MBAs out there can flesh this out for us a bit more?</p>
<p>Many real estate companies do not have formal recruiting processes and thus you have to do much of the legwork yourself. Additionally, real estate companies normally don't make decisions regarding internships till vary late. Since the recruiting process for real estate starts later, you need to be aware that many of your other friends will already have internships lined up in consulting and ibanking while you perhaps haven't even started interviewing.</p>
<p>When considering which university to attend, I would start at this page:</p>
<p>Teams</a> that competed in the National Real Estate Challenge</p>
<p>Some of these schools have Real Estate Finance concentrations, some have Masters in Real Estate programs (Cornell, USC - generally require real estate experience, but both also have MBA programs), and others have neither but still offer great opportunities in real estate (for instance, Darden just has a general MBA degree but they send quite a few students into the real estate industry).</p>
<p>Since real estate is all about relationships, you will leverage your alumni network greatly. So, location, location, location is important when deciding where to attend (unless you don't care where you live).</p>
<p>BTW, if you can't get into a top 20 school, there are some other ranked schools with real estate programs. Wisconsin is probably the most noteworthy of that group. However, other schools such as Florida also place graduates in real estate.</p>
<p>There's about three different paths you can take to development: finance, construction, or brokerage. A master's degree in real estate or a MBA with a concentration in real estate or finance would help tremendously. You could also get a master's in construction but I wouldn't recommend it in your case; too specialized.</p>
<p>Your first step should be to join the Urban Land Institute so you can expose yourself to the industry.</p>
<p>When did you graduate?</p>