MS Real Estate Columbia VS USC

Hey guys  wanted to get some thoughts from the experienced RE people here. I am deciding between USC's Master in Real Estate Development and Columbia's equivalent program.


From my research Columbia is a larger class, more varied backgrounds/experience and generally younger students. It also has more a finance/investing skew. USC is smaller (1/3rd the size), older students with more RE background and focused more on development. Both seem like they have great alumni networks and job placement. Aside from each one skewing to a job in different regions what's the perception of the two programs? 


As some background I started in S&T (loan trading), left as an associate, took a year off to travel and then have been working as an acquisitions analyst at a small investment shop in the southeast. I would like to get into a more institutional seat/larger markets/deals etc. I'm pretty location agnostic east vs west coast.

 

USC is a stronger program and places better than Columbia. This is reflected is the class admissions with older candidates with experience. 

Columbia isn’t a bad program, but if you are comparing the two side by side location agnostic, USC is superior.

With that said...if you want to be in NYC, Columbia is the obvious choice. Really comes down to a location preference of Southern California vs. NYC. If I’m choosing solely on the program and outcome, I’m picking USC all day.

 
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