MSRED worth $95k in debt?

Let's cut to the chase, is an MSRED (MIT/Columbia/Cornell) worth the substantial price tag? $95k+ and cost of living. Does it pay off? It seems like RE is so relationship driven, it would be more worth my time to work hard, make connections and hustle my way to the top?

 
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Run an NPV, presuming you can generate S&P500 average return on money invested. This would be based on your current salary plus future earning potential. Future earning potential was the question mark for me when I was evaluating b school much like you are. I was making $60K all in before quitting my job and going to b school. I was also on a track where I would not have earned more than $120-150K for 7-10 years. What was more important for me, was that I would never have had the chance to pivot to development/investment from construction management had I not gone--therefore a huge part of the decision for me was doing somewhat I really enjoy and aligning myself with a career that theoretically has unlimited earning potential. Real estate is becoming more and more institutionalized, and so what used to get people in the door (undergrad finance degree) is now standard and masters degrees are becoming the new norm (specifically at top tier firms). Now there are people who go from investment banking to REPE, but it sounds like you're not currently in IB. I would ask yourself 1) do you have the connections/money to make this happen on your own and sell investors on your track record--which is what you'll need to do to get started, 2) do you want to work at a small shop or are you destined to find a gig at the best firm that will hire you?

I would look at top tier MBA's focused on real estate, if you're really pivoting (i.e. going from non-RE or unrelated career to real estate), because the internship opportunities and time to execute said pivot in a 2 year MBA far outweigh that time you'd have in a 13 month MSRED/MRED. For example, the MSRED is an accelerated program where you literally are in class 13 months straight and then try to a find a job (yet you don't have an internship you can point to showing you had actually done x or y while in the MSRED program). In an MBA, everyone interns full time for the summer in between years 1 and 2 (paid), and in RE you have the opportunity (if you network/hustle) to work part time and intern during your Spring semester of 1st year and Fall semester of 2nd year. This equals 3 internships plus the degree by the graduate vs. 0 internships plus the degree that you'd have after an MSRED. Becuase RE is such a practical field that relies on experience (even over a shiny masters degree), I think the combo of 1+ internships plus the education is more valuable to a prospective employer than the degree alone (paired with no internships).

Let me caveat the above advice by saying if you are 1-2 years out of undergrad, the MSRED may be a better choice because you're going to start as an Analyst out of that program. The MBA is great if you have 2-5 years of experience before going (preferable in something related to real estate) but know that employers see MBAs and there's an expectation that they'll be more expensive to hire (for obvious reasons). I would say there are more analyst level jobs for people coming out of MSRED's than there are job for MBAs.

 

Are you trying to work for a super institutional fund/developer? Or a middle market/regional firm?

I work for a middle market REPE fund and never pursued a grad program due to the cost. Our team is currently hiring an analyst and we are getting a ton of MBA and MSRED resumes. This is for a job making $70k a year as the most junior person on the team. To me, it's simply not worth it.

 

Totally agree with this. I’ve seen some go for MSRE/MBA, only to come out with low level Analyst roles that they could’ve gotten without sinking $100-200K into a masters degree. Even if you could cash flow the entire degree without loans, it’s still not worth the cost of the degree (and the opportunity cost of two years worth of salary if you choose to go full-time).

If you must pursue an MSRE/MBA, I think the best way to go about it is part-time while already in an Analyst/Associate RE role. This way you’d avoid the opportunity cost of lost wages + you wouldn’t get stuck in a lowly Analyst role post graduation since you’d already have some RE experience going into the program.

 

I think I would like to make the move to a megafund, but I am concerned that the MSRED would not make as much of an impact as just working on bigger and better projects and I will just end up with the same positions I otherwise could have had

 

question for you - did you attempt to secure an Analyst role prior to getting your masters degree? or did you just assume you wouldn't be able to given the social science degree? I do feel like it's possible to still secure a CRE role even with a totally irrelevant bachelor's degree based on what I've seen on LinkedIn. you'd obviously have to try harder/face more rejection in the beginning, but once you're able to secure that first Analyst role, no one will care about the social science degree as long as you've built up the proper amount of CRE experience

 

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