Looking for advice: RE vs CF

You'll be much better suited to make that decision after your internship to see how you actually like it. Not many of us have probably lived both lives (RE and CF) so it's tough to say. 

If you love RE, love deal making, love sales (yes, any high paying RE role is sales whether you're in acq, debt or AM) then it can be a good path. But, always remember it's tough to get out of RE once you're in it without an MBA, and as you can see on recent forums it can be a very finicky business and offer less stability than CF. 

If you like strategy/operations, you might be well-suited for an AM role in RE. With that said, I want to reiterate how niche RE really is as a career. With CF, you'll have much more ability to make moves to different types of companies (for instance, you can move to the finance team of a start up, you can move from a tech company to a durable goods company, etc. At the end of the day, you're still doing CF, but you can be in an organization that you find exciting at the time).

Also keep in mind some other issues that could make or break it for you if the decision is close:

(1) REPE generally pays more than FLDP at lower levels and FLDP promotions take longer. But, corporate finance has a more clear path to being a high 6 figure executive than RE does, and generally comes with a better work-life balance and less risk to get there.

(2) RE at mid-tier and up is VERY location dependent. As a junior, it's easier to hop markets, but once you've spent a few years building out your network in your market, it makes moving to a new city or part of the country all the more difficult because you'll want someone to pay you as VP+ but you won't have the same local rolodex as your competition

(3) I'm not sure on this - but I seem to see lots of folks I went to college with that got into good FLDP roles end up getting accepted to T7 MBAs with plenty at Harvard, Wharton, etc. I don't see the same in real estate. With that said, if you come out the gates with a good RE role, you definitely don't NEED an MBA to progress. I did that and I never got an MBA and I've had 0 problem being promoted or getting looks for good roles. The MBA in real estate is generally only needed if you are having trouble breaking into that first great company or if you're trying to run the ladder at some of the mega RE firms

(4) RE is much more a people / outside business. What I mean by that as once you're a VP, probably at least half of your time is spent outside of the office on tours, coffee meetings, networking, etc. I don't know CF well, but my understanding is that business is always an "inside" business meaning it's much more of an "at your desk" type of career. RE is like this at lower levels 100%, but the more senior you get the less time you spend with your eyes glued to a computer and the more you spend in the field

(5) I mentioned risk above, but trying to make big money in RE even as an employee can be full of anxiety. Even as an employee, your future success and comp is so highly dependent on the investments you and your firm make which can often times be derailed by market conditions out of your control, or you can be in positions like many were in 2021 where you know the market is frothy but you can't just sit on the sidelines or your position isn't really needed any more. This, for me, is the major drawback of working in RE and is something that often keeps me up at night stressing over recent deals we've made or what all needs to happen for me to get my comp up in 3 years. Of course there's risk to everything, but CF can be a much more stable career and you can elect to work for very stable firms or if you want more risk you can go work at a start up.