MSRE: Wisconsin vs SMU
Hello,
I'm choosing between an MSRE at Wisconsin Madison or SMU in Dallas. I have no RE experience, I'm trying to pivot via the masters degree.
A couple questions:
1) Do MSRE grads generally have access to the same or similar business school networks as MBA grads? MSRE programs exist inside the business schools, but is there a cultural / social divide between MBA track guys and MSRE people in the same classes?
2) Madison isn't a huge market, but Dallas is. SMU's position and credibility in Dallas seems to compensate for its lesser status on the national level (at least for students who are ok working in Texas). Am I misreading this?
3) What am I not considering? (Background detailed in this post.)
Thanks in advance for any/all feedback!
Best
PS: Costs are functionally identical after scholarships. Anticipated debt burden is low.
I can only speak to Wisconsin. I believe even their undergrad program has class crossover with the MBA, and the club / network really all intertwines. I went there for undergrad and interacted with plenty of MBA students at the time, and nowadays if I come across an MBA it still feels like we shared a similar experience that connects us.
Wisconsin real estate network is going to be much bigger nationwide and will be particularly strong in Chicago and Minneapolis. I do work in Texas and honestly can't say I've come across anyone with an SMU MSRE (didn't even realize they had one until now) but doesn't mean they don't exist just because I personally haven't come across. To be fair, I also rarely come across any Wisconsin MSRE or MBA either (though there are several undergrads I've met).
I think the only real reason you'd do an MBA over an MSRE is if you want to run the ranks in a more corporate setting. Otherwise, I don't think there is any sort of divide between the students in terms of interaction or network. And regardless, once you're a few years out of school it doesn't make much of a difference imo where you went to school once you've built your track record in an actual role (unless you're really gunning for an executive position at a large prestigious firm in which case neither of these programs are going to give you a leg up anyways). Just a nice conversation starter on the random occasion when you come across someone.
If you are 100% dead set on working in Dallas or Texas, SMU might be more worthwhile given you can network and find internships locally while you're actually in school. If you're unsure or prefer to work in the midwest particularly, then I'd probably lean towards Wisconsin.
Thanks for the reply. SMU just rolled out their MSRE track last year -- which is a little frightening, and probably accounts for why you've not met any alums.
This seems true, glad to hear it.
Thought some more about it and going to expand on the above. Generally I think the value of your school's network is largely overrated except for certain situations (you went to USC and work in LA, you went to UT and work in Austin, you went to Wisconsin and work in Chicago, etc.) and those apply more to undergrad / MBA because MSRE is only one year so you have much less time to build out a network and experience.
Here are some scenarios that you should think about:
- I'm not sure how SMU is, but a good real estate program will have successful alumni come in to teach a class, host a club meeting, etc. This is a good chance for you to make a connection with them that maybe you can leverage one day. At Wisconsin, most of these will be people that are in Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison or Minneapolis with a few west coast or NY sprinkled in. At SMU, I'd bet they are 80% people that work in Dallas, 10% other Texas markets, and maybe 10% nationwide. At the end of the day, you'll be there for one year in an MSRE so you might have 5? opportunities to do this. So not a huge impact anyways
- Wisconsin is one of the largest real estate programs and networks that exists. While most people stay in the midwest, due to the sheer size of it you still get a lot of people in California, New York, Texas, etc. How is this useful to you? Probably only really if you decide you really want to work in LA (just naming a random example) and now you have 5 - 10 alumni you can reach out to for a phone call and expect a better response. SMU is not only a much smaller school in general, but almost everyone that goes there is either from Texas or wants to stay in Texas after, so you're going to have less nationwide reach. Either way, no one is going to hire you over someone more qualified or going to put you in touch with more people if you aren't sharp regardless if you share the same school.
- You might make good acquaintances with 5 to 10 people in your program while you're there. These will be almost meaningless to you at first, but some day 5 to 10 years will go by and these will be people that will always take your call or might know someone that you're trying to get a connection to. Same as above - these 5 to 10 are mostly going to go to the midwest if you go to Chicago and will mostly be in Dallas if you go to SMU. Honestly, you can accomplish this same thing once you start working by finding people you specifically want to meet on LinkedIn and taking grabbing coffee with them every few months
- Edit: Adding one more I forgot. Your professors probably know a ton of real estate people in the alumni network. If you really hit it off with one of your professors, they can probably make some calls / introductions for you as you're looking for a job out of school. Again, this is going to be a much larger network if you go to Wisconsin, but SMU professors will have much stronger connections in Dallas specifically than the ones at Wisconsin. This only really applies if you're one of the professors favorite students (which in a masters program is much more of an engagement and social thing than being the 100% student).
I went to UW and majored in RE in my undergrad. Great curriculum, the staff really care about the students and networking, and I interacted a lot with the MBA students. A lot of my classmates went all over the US after receiving job offers: TX (Wells Fargo), CA, CO, FL.
I think the assumption that you’ll be pigeonholed to the Midwest is overkill. I graduated and my job took me out of the Midwest.
I vote UW.
Thanks for the reply, good input. I don't want to end up in Chicago, so it's good to hear this isn't a certain outcome.
I agree it doesn't pigeonhole you. As I mentioned, I myself work in Texas. Just saying it can't compete for network compared to SMU in Dallas specifically, but anywhere else it probably wins. And I do know a few Wisconsin grads (undergrad) that work in Dallas too. Also reminds me that the MSRE at Wisconsin is relatively new as well so that's probably why I haven't bumped into any grads yet, but it tails off of the undergrad / MBA program at Wisconsin which are already very well established so I would still feel safer there than a brand new SMU MSRE.
Can’t comment on SMU, but having gone through UW’s MSRE program I can say that almost anyone who wanted to work outside of the midwest did.
In terms of resources / network, I saw a ton of crossover between the grad programs and couldn’t tell a difference.
Longshot -- but do you know if anybody ended up in mountain states (especially Utah)? Probably not realistic but I'd love to ski more haha
Not the original comment but I think there are UW grads that get to Denver. The limiting factor might just be how many CRE jobs actually exist in Utah in general. I imagine most institutional roles that invest in Utah aren't actually located in Utah (though for some reason I think Bellwether might have any office there?)
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