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The MBA Real Estate Program at Columbia has given me so much more than I could’ve imagined when I first started school in 2016. My classmates, the alumni, the real estate courses, speaker series, and special industry events have been the main ingredients to a transformative educational experience I would not have gotten anywhere else. As a career switcher looking to pivot into real estate development and investment from a background in construction management, I benefited immensely from the strong and tight-knit CBS real estate community that spans across the globe and across all functions within the industry.
One of the best decisions I made during my time at Columbia was to serve on the board of the school’s Real Estate Association (REA). Not only did my role as AVP and then VP of Trips offer me the opportunity to meet more of my peers, but it also gave me the chance to connect with alumni in various cities and countries we planned real estate market trips to. I was always impressed with how generous these busy professionals would be with their time and how enthusiastic they would be about hosting current REA students for a company visit, no matter where they were, from San Francisco to Hong Kong.
Before I begin, I want to first acknowledge that this is intended as an extension to the alumni testimonial written last year by my former classmate, John Pollock ’17. I will elaborate on a few specific areas that he discussed, but I would strongly advise reading his testimonial as well because it includes a more comprehensive overview of the multitude of benefits offered by the CBS MBA Real Estate Program.
From an academic standpoint, a major benefit for me personally was the mix of teaching styles within the real estate elective course offerings. My undergraduate degree was in Civil Engineering, so I did not have a strong academic foundation in real estate or finance coursework before attending CBS. With this in mind, I was pleased to take some courses that were taught in a traditional academic lecture setting, such as Real Estate Finance and Real Estate Transactions, to learn the basics before moving on to more advanced immersion and master classes, such as the Real Estate Project Class.
When I started the MBA program at Columbia Business School in 2015, I was a prospective career-switcher. My work experience was in institutional investment consulting and private equity, but I wanted to change gears and pursue a career in real estate. For me, Columbia’s real estate program was exactly what I was looking for: a combination of strong academics and real world, hands-on experiences in a collegial environment, as well as access to a strong, active alumni network.Students in Columbia’s MBA program are not required to pick a “concentration,” although many do to focus their academics and recruiting efforts. In other words, students pursuing an MBA, but focusing in Real Estate, do not receive a separate degree such as a Masters in Real Estate Development, which is obtained within a separate school. The MBA Real Estate Program is a series of real estate electives which build upon one another, interwoven with academic activities which complement the curriculum and is fully supported by the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate (PMC), which helps develop the academic experience, holds industry conferences, connects students with alumni, and supports the students’ initiatives within the Real Estate Association.