Masters route for CRE in Canada
Hello everyone
I am an international student with an undergrad in Civil Engineering. Which masters degree should I target in Canada to break into CRE. Currently, I have applied to the McGill MMF and planning to apply to Concordia MIF. I cannot find any real estate courses other than Schulich’s MS RE, but that is for experienced candidates. Any suggested pathways will be helpful.
Thankyou
Schulich's is really the only reputable master's program that is specific to real estate, but Rotman's MBA has a good real estate society and several courses, not to mention any top MBA (Western/Queen's/Schulich/etc.) will get you a foot in the door for development with the appropriate networking given your civ eng background.
If you do Schulich's MSRE or a top MBA program and aim to target development management roles you will likely have quite a bit of success getting interviews, as a civil engineering background will be quite helpful in that type of role. For more pure play CRE finance roles it could be tougher unless you specifically do Schulich or Rotman.
Have you got any work experience behind your engineering degree? If not, its very worth putting in a year or two in construction or some other related field where your skills are applicable to help get a foot in the door at those programs. Not to mention the actual work experience will be valuable to developers.
Thanks for the reply.
I graduated in July 21’ and am working in Deloitte as a BA (totally unrelated to Civil or RE). I want to break into finance roles in Cre, can a Masters in Finance along with certifications like REFM help to land some interviews in brokerages or small REPE shops? I did an internship with a builder, but honestly, I will need to study further. Schulich’s MRE requires at least two years exp in related fields, and I do not have the experience for MBA aswell.
MBA is going to be far more helpful than a Masters in Finance - real estate finance is quite simple so they are going to be more concerned about general business knowledge than advanced financial knowledge. Deloitte is a great name to have on your resume for bschool applications in Canada, I'd encourage you to stick it out at least a year, ideally two, and apply to MBAs or Schulich MREI (I don't believe the MREI requirements are specifically real estate-related experience, but moreso business experience).
A lot of schools will make an exception on work experience and let you in with one year if the rest of your application is stellar, but you'll realistically probably need the full two.
In the meantime, you can use your spare time to start networking with industry professionals and letting them know your plans and interest in the field. Also just apply to entry level roles as well, no reason you can't pivot and entry level finance roles generally look favorably on engineering students. You might be able to open a door in the interim while preparing for a masters and be able to skip the extra schooling expense.
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