Just saw a post on LinkedIn that said UW Madison Business School is rolling out a new, 9-month master's program for RE (https://wsb.wisc.edu/programs-degrees/masters/rea…)
What are your guys' thoughts on this? To me, being from the Midwest, the UW RE program is exceptional and claims to be #2 in the country. I've also seen a good amount of UW alums in pretty senior positions at several firms.
Would you think receiving a MSRE degree there will allow you to have national options after graduating given the program's history? Or just in the Midwest? I'm currently in the position of considering grad schools for next year, but since I'm in NYC now, I'm not sure if UW would be a proper choice when you have NYU down the street with a pretty solid presence across the board.
Would love to hear some thoughts.
Madison has a pretty wide real estate network nationwide based on people I've worked with. I would suggest staying in NYC for schack/Columbia/Baruch so you can always go for networking sessions or coffee chats. I stayed in the city for my masters and it's helped me so much in terms of networking. At the end of the day you're just going for the contacts and NYC schools are great for that
I would always default to MRED/MSRE's being regional.
There are arguments for certain programs not being regional, but even if the degree isn't, part of what you should be doing when you're at school is building your network and finding a job for after graduation. It's a lot harder to do that across the country.
Very much depends on your long term goals. If you want to stay in NYC, go there. If you want to get back to the midwest (or somewhere else) choose the best program you can find in that region.
A note on UW Madison specifically (please double check this as I am not 100 percent certain): Traditionally this was a well-regarded MBA program with a reputation as one of the better RE MBA's in the country (not the best but very well respected). If I remember correctly, they had some financial issues or something that forced them to consider restructuring their programs and my guess is the new MSRE program is a result of that. I would be diligent in researching this and would also be cautious of the fact that 1) it is new program which can have obvious challenges and 2) the alumni network may not be as useful as the prior MBA program although the school very likely market that it is. This is speculative as I have not researched the school in a long time and this is the first I have heard of an MSRE program there...but for your benefit I would definitely be aware of these potential hurdles in your research.
When it comes to MSRE programs, geography really does carry the most weight in regards to your expected ROI. Your prior experience is a close second.
Our previous dean planned to cut the entire MBA program because it loses money; wealthy alums threatened to withhold funds, so we fired that dean.
New MS program is an initiative to complement the existing MBA program. It's not high-level like the MBA curriculum – it's more of a one-year bootcamp of our undergrad curriculum. We are hoping to get a new mix of students that, for example, studied architecture and want to build technical CRE skills.
OP, feel free to PM any other questions about UW! You can absolutely benefit from the alumni association doing the MS, but it probably isn't the educational experience you're looking for if you have an existing background in CRE.
Very useful, thanks for clarifying this. SB
Got it. So I have a BS in real estate finance and have almost 3 years of direct experience at this point. Would you think the UW program would be worth it given that? Otherwise, I think I'd focus in on NYU.
Update for anyone following the thread: The program announced a 12-credit REPE track with four private equity courses and a student-led ‘Investment Fund’ — looks like we are building the program out to target people with experience in CRE looking to pivot into REPE!
I don't understand why people fall for these scam RE degrees. Especially a 9 month graduate degree. Nobody in their right mind would take that seriously.
Just get an MBA if you REALLY need a grad degree.
What if you want to meet folks in other fields of real estate, folks who have experience in construction, architecture etc? Why would a real estate focused person want to spend two years, double the money, double the opportunity costs, to be in a 1000 student mba class with 1-2% real estate focused classmates?
The network garnered out of a msre (except for maybe Columbia, emphasis on maybe) is trash
You learn nothing of value that wouldn't be learned on the job within a couple of weeks
Nobody respects a msre, people would take an undergrad, post IB, or post MBA before a msre
If you come out of school with an internship the summer after you graduate and then a 9 month grad degree and you're against someone straight out of school for an entry level role, I'm giving it to the MSRE/MRED grad 9/10 times.
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