I recently graduated in May with a BBA in CIS, with no CRE experience, and not the most marketable GPA. I have had a few interviews with some pretty solid firms but nothing has come to fruition. I currently have a few more decent opportunities but if I don't land any of those, I'm thinking the online Georgetown MRE could be a good option. Everything I have read has been solid and seems like a great program. My thinking is that if I can get admitted, I could take courses starting in the spring semester and start looking for a good summer internship as soon as I get admitted. So basically I could use this program to rebrand myself and land something in the summer. I feel like at my age and with my current low expenses, this could be a great time to go this route. Any input is greatly appreciated.
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I took it several years ago. The program is really easy and you can ace it without any effort. It’s mostly for working professionals. I think maybe less than 10% are under age 25, while I met a lot people in their late 30s and early 40s.
I won’t recommend you to take it, go take the NYU one and you will meet more younger professionals or students.
Don’t know much about the masters in RE at GU.
However, do have some friends that got their MBA there and were RE track within the program. It’s called the Steers Center and they loved it. Got to underwrite real deals for most of the mba program. If you plan on getting a few years of work experience before applying to any masters programs, would recommend looking into this. I don’t think you can access the steers center from the masters in real estate program (that is done in a different school - steers center is in the business school).
It's a very strong program. That said, you will benefit infinitely more from it with at least a year of experience under your belt.
Edit: Hah, thanks for the monkey shit kids, but as someone who went through a MRED program, and someone who now hires MRED grads, I can promise you that experience before real estate masters programs will make a world of difference in your job hunt.
How so? Genuinely curious. Seems like the majority of Texas A&M students came straight out of UG into the program with only internship experience. I would definitely try and get something at least part time in the CRE industry and absolutely do a summer internship.
Yes about 1/3 of my class at my MRED program was straight out of UG as well. (the other two thirds being people with a couple years of experience and career switchers with a couple years as a GC or an architect). The people straight out of undergrad got worse internships and worse jobs starting out and had to have things like "cap rates" explained to them.
You most certainly can get an MRED straight out of undergrad. It doesn't mean you should.
Now in your case, because Georgetown can be taken part time while working, if you get a solid job you should be fine starting now because you'll learn both in the day at your job and at night in class.
SB - always blows my mind with kids who go straight UG to MRED or MBA. Not only will it help with the job hunt but it will be so much easier to absorb the curriculum taught with even a little direct experience under your belt. A RE focused program is not like Accounting 101, experience matters.
Get experience first. You don't know what you don't know, and the program will go right over your head without experience.
Everyone I know in the program is doing it on the side. More of a networking tool, and a lot of very respected RE guys teach in the program. In DC it's a bit of a rite of passage, but everyone still realizes it's for profit and nothing groundbreaking. Not sure how it'd translate outside of DC, but locally it's viewed as a transitioning tool.
In what way will the program go over my head? Not trying to call you out, genuinely curious. Seems like the vast majority of Texas A&M MRE graduates students came straight out of undergrad without any experience outside of internships.
The program is super micro, I'd want to know what I want to learn/improve on before I took it. I'd also want to know where I want to go after, as the networking seems to be the biggest selling point.
At what point in your career does experience outweigh a post-grad degree?
How many hours/week is required for the PT Georgetown MSRE (assuming you have industry experience)?
Four hours a week if you don’t care, six hours a week to make sure you get an A in the course, 8-10 hours a week to actually learn something
Agreed. I try to spend another hour or two a week networking with other students and the professors, as I am an online student. Networking in this program is not handed to you, you definitely have to initiate it.
This is accurate lol
Many have recommended you get experience first and as a current student I wholeheartedly agree. You'll understand and will be able to apply what you are learning to the real world much more and will have better exit ops if you have good experience going in. To be blatantly clear and somewhat redundant...as I think this may be easy to look past when you are searching online and hoping the program is the answer...consider the following very carefully: Your job prospects now without the program will be very similar to your prospects after completing the program if you don't have experience first. The MPSRE will not qualify you for anything other than entry level roles (most of which are already accessible to you if you network hard) without prior experience, ideally 1-3 years. The exception would be if you networked into a role through a classmate or professor. If you plan to take the course online that is highly unlikely and I wouldn't at all endorse taking it on campus without experience just for that one potential benefit. If you just want to get a masters and learn and don't have to worry about debt, then sure. You'll get some benefit, it just won't justify the cost or time in my personal opinion.
My recommendation would be to pound pavement and find an entry level role in the field that interests you most. Network hard and be persistent. Be clear on why you want the job and have your story down so an interviewer can clearly see that you are passionate and committed to the industry, to the firm, and to the geographic area you are applying in. With limited experience, analyst roles in investment sales or capital markets will likely be your most accessible options that will still afford exit ops that will allow you to transition your real estate career in almost any direction. You likely have already explored these positions without success. I'd encourage you to stay positive and keep trying, you can definitely land one of those roles without a masters and there is no guarantee you will if you have one. Other sides of brokerage (tenant rep, leasing, etc) will be accessible and can provide experience, but they will not provide the quantitative experience necessary to transition out of brokerage easily if that is important to you long term.
Thanks for the feedback! I definitely agree with everything you said. Great advice for anyone still in the position I was in.
As an update though, I did find a role as an underwriting analyst at an agency lender so I will be holding off getting a graduate degree while gaining experience here.
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