<p>My goal is to eventually start my own business and develop neighborhoods and shopping centers and possibly even hotels. (My dream is to start a luxury hotel chain). I will be a senior in high school this year and I am thinking about going to Cal Poly-SLO. Would it be best to major in civil engineering or something else? (Like architectural engineering, city/regional planning, or real estate development). And would it be best to minor in architecture or business/econ. Salary is important as well as I would not be able to start a company right out of college, so job opportunities is also important. I really don't know which major is best as it seems like there is so many choices for real estate development!</p>
<p>hospitality management?</p>
<p>You want to build and design hotels or own and run one?</p>
<p>Starting your own real estate development firm is tough, really tough, especially with the economy the way it is nowadays. It’s probably best to try to get a job with a major developer to learn the ropes after college, whatever your major is. I don’t think there’s any one best major simply because there are just as many facets of development as there are possible majors. I would also throw in construction management into your list of possible majors.</p>
<p>As cranstonjdc said, running a hotel is not really the same as real estate development.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d try to think of what aspect of real estate development made you interested in it and figure out a major from there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I would want to build/plan hotels, rather than running them. Also I am very interested in builiding and planning residential developments, so would construction management be better than civil/architectural engineering?</p>
<p>Companies don’t really specialize in building hotels. The ones that put them up usually do office building and residential towers as well. There’s just not enough money to be made in only one niche sector.</p>
<p>By building and planning, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean the actual physical construction? Or the structural design? Or the actual layout?</p>
<p>More along the lines of the structural design and actual layout of the buildings. I am less interested in the physical construction, and you are right about not wanting to work in only one niche, I would also want to develop offices, condos, etc.</p>
<p>Civil engineering or architectural engineering for structural design. Architecture for general design, layout, aesthetics, visual design, etc.</p>
<p>What would specifically entail the structural design? Is it like what bolts to use, plank sizes, etc?</p>
<p>Basically, the architect hires the structural engineer to design the actual frame that will support and enclose the building. That involves calculating the loads on the structure (from the building itself, people in the building, earthquakes, snow, rain, wind, etc.), and then designing the structure to withstand these loads. Depending on the type of structure, that would include the steel members, bolts, welds, concrete, reinforcement, etc.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the info, this really helps a lot. I think civil engineering with a focus on land development would be best. Maybe a minor in architecture would be good too, but that’s a lot of work.</p>
<p>I think the minor in architecture is unrealistic, unless you want to take longer to graduate. I don’t know that it would help you much, anyway.</p>
<p>It’s worthy to note that in civil engineering a masters or better is usually the norm. You might want to think twice if you are completely against going to graduate school.</p>
<p>I don’t think a master’s in civil is as important if you’re not structural.</p>