Best Real Estate MBAs in the Northeast
While a career in real estate is not one of the most popular options for MBA graduates, it is a solid choice. The U.S. real estate industry pulls in over $166 billion in revenue each year, and markets in India, China, and other emerging economies are poised to expand. So, the question is, if you’re looking to go to school in the Northeast, where are the best MBA programs to help build a career in the industry? We’ve highlighted five of our favorite Northeast real estate programs below.
The Best Northeast Real Estate MBA Programs
The NYU Stern School of Business offers full-time MBA students a chance to specialize in real estate. According to the school, it “provides rigorous training in the development, investment, and financing of real estate projects.” Students who choose the specializing are taught to think strategically about real estate in primary and secondary markets including the legal, taxation, and regulatory environments they’ll encounter.
Real estate MBA curriculum includes classes such as:
- Real Estate Development and Entrepreneurship
- Real Estate Transactions
- Real Estate Investment Strategies
- Urban Systems
Real Estate Outside the Classroom:
- Center of Real Estate Finance: Established in 2012, the Center is dedicated to expanding the School’s course offerings and career services in real estate. It’s open to both MBAs and undergraduates alike and offers monthly events, research and more.
- MBA Real Estate Club: The Stern Real Estate Club (SREC) offers guest lectures, panel discussions, mixers, site visits, and case competitions for MBA students interested in expanding their real estate experience and insight.
The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business also offers a specialization in real estate for MBA students, which can include an intensive learning experience (ILE) in real estate development. ILEs are elective courses that offer client-centered work and experiential learning opportunity off campus in a concentrated time format.
MBA students interested in real estate can take courses in:
- Real Estate Private/Public Equity
- Real Estate Private/Public Debt
- Negotiations
- Fixed Income Analysis
Real Estate Outside the Classroom
- Steer Center for Global Real Estate: The Steers Center “offers students unparalleled access to the real estate industry at a global level.” Students gain hands-on experience with the D.C. real estate market through a range of activities from alumni mentoring to internships, job contacts, and more.
- Real Estate Industry Career Coach: Georgetown offers a career coach with specific industry knowledge and relationships in real estate. This career coach will help MBA students with their resume, cover letter, mock interviews, and networking strategy.
At The Wharton School, MBA students can major in real estate. This major includes two required courses in real estate investment and real estate development. The goal of the major is to “prepare students to be leaders in the real estate industry” and provide the necessary quantitative and qualitative tools to be successful. Offered since 1985, the major has grown in scope and size over the years.
Additional courses in real estate that Wharton MBA students can enjoy:
- Global Real Estate: Risk, Politics, and Culture
- Urban Real Estate Economics
- Real Estate Law
- Real Estate Entrepreneurship
Real Estate Outside the Classroom
- Samuel Zell & Robert Lurie Real Estate Center: Each year, the Real Estate Center sponsors conferences, seminars, and special programs for students and faculty interested in real estate. Established in 1983, it promotes excellence in real estate education and research.
- Wharton Real Estate Club: The Wharton Real Estate Club provides career development, mentorship, and networking opportunities for students at Wharton. Of particular note are the treks and tours that allow students to meet prospective employers, visit project sites, and gain first-hand experience.
The Columbia Business School’s MBA Real Estate program “provides students an unparalleled opportunity to expand their entrepreneurial skills while focusing on real estate finance and investment management.”
The program encourages students to view real estate as both a physical and financial product by emphasizing a blend of theory and practice. Throughout the curriculum, students work on 65-plus proprietary real estate business cases taught by real estate professionals.
The real estate curriculum differs every term, but it includes courses such as:
- Real Estate Finance
- Real Estate Transactions
- Real Estate Portfolio Management
- Social Impact Real Estate Investing and Development
Real Estate Outside the Classroom
- Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate: The Center for Real Estate integrates the theoretical and practical knowledge of real estate. It offers regularly hosted events including panel discussions, conferences, alumni career breakfasts, and symposiums
- Fellowships & Scholarships: Uniquely, Columbia offers multiple fellowships and scholarships for MBA students interested in real estate. Awards can be as much as $50,000 a year and are both merit-based and need-based.
Full-time MBA students at the Rutgers Business School can customize their education with a real estate concentration. In total, students who choose this path will take six courses in real estate including strategic management. They can also pursue a dual concentration in finance and real estate, which requires them to take a course in aggregate economic analysis.
Other potential real estate courses that MBA students can take, include:
- Real Estate Finance
- Real Estate Capital Markets
- Market Analysis and Valuation
- Property Management and Real Estate Investment Management
Real Estate Outside the Classroom
- Center for Real Estate: The Rutgers Center for Real Estate is a dynamic hub for students, academics, and professionals. It aims to educate, research, and exchange ideas on real estate. Currently, more than 95 real estate professionals lend their influence to the Center.
- Rutgers Real Estate Club: The Club is a “place for people interested in real estate, internships, and everything business. It brings together experienced speakers for a variety of events and opportunities.
Energy Conservation, Healthcare Struggles, and More – New York News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Do as Your Neighbor Does? Neighbors Caring about the Environment Makes You More Likely to Conserve – Columbia Business School
When it comes to interpersonal decisions, group elements often become a heavy factor, including with conservation.
Columbia Business School Professor Adam Galinsky recently co-authored a new study in Nature Human Behaviour that may offer insight into how to affect meaningful changes toward climate conservation.
By focusing on “second-order normative beliefs,” the researchers illuminate that when it comes to topics like energy conservation, for instance, “what people believe their community members care about is an important predictor of individual conservation behavior, above and beyond people’s own beliefs about energy conservation.”
Galinsky explains, “The evidence shows that policymakers can’t simply ask people to reduce, reuse, and recycle. In fact, trying to reach people with subsidies for environmentally-friendly decision-making can backfire. Instead, the roadmap to improving perceptions of conservation starts with reminding individuals that their neighbors care about it. It’s important to shift the focus from trying to change what people believe to reinforcing what their friends believe.”
You can learn more about the research here.
Faculty Snapshot: Finding a Remedy for Health Care’s Struggles – Rutgers Business School News
The Rutgers Business School recently profiled Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management and Program Director for the Masters of Science in Healthcare Services Management, Xin (David) Ding, whose research studies “potential ways to increase hospital revenues through process coordination, patient involvement, and the cultivation of a patient safety environment.”
Professor Xin (David) Ding / Photo via business.rutgers.edu
The recent profile in Rutgers Business School News reads:
“While physicians and nurses traditionally have been trained to take care of clinical needs from patients, they don’t necessarily know how to manage operations and businesses well. With the transition from volume-based care to value-based care, supply chain concepts can help care providers maximize value through the optimization of their resource allocations.”
You can read more from the profile here.
In the Future, Everyone Will Be Able to Make Robots – Stevens Institute of Technology SOB News
The Stevens Institute of Technology President’s Distinguished Lecture Series recently hosted prominent robotics and AI researcher Daniela Rus who “challenged the audience to rethink conventional notions of robots.”
“Imagine the limitless possibilities that could arise from the ability to create the machines that can help save lives, improve the quality of life, or transport us to places we cannot go to on our own,” she notes.
“Right now we have the ability to use our technologies, coupled with interesting interfaces, to enable much more extensive capabilities. And while, today, we can begin to use natural language to program machines, how far can we go in connecting us directly to the machine?”
You can learn more about Rus’ research here.
Working in Healthcare? Rutgers Dishes New Advice – New York News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Working In Healthcare? Here’s How to Stay Relevant – Rutgers Business School News
The Rutgers Business School recently shared five reasons its Masters in Healthcare Services Management is the “answer for professionals … who want to up their game with analytic skills, leadership development and business knowledge.”
- Analytical skills are a necessity: “Data provides critical insights needed to inform better decision-making and improve operational efficiencies.”
- It’s all about delivering value: Stay “up-to-date about changes in health care and…value-based practices that ensure quality services.”
- Empowered to bring about change: “Students learn what it takes to change practices, make operational improvements, and be effective leaders.”
- It’s not as hard as you think: “Many courses can be taken online to supplement time in the classroom. And students are able to waive up to six credits for eligible work experience.”
- Hands-on learning: “Students in the program are required to complete a capstone project that gives them a chance to work with a real healthcare provider on an actual problem.”
You can read more from the recent RBS article here.
Answering the Call for AT&T: Interns’ Insights Add Value at Company’s Indian Operations – Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business News
The Stevens Institute of Technology SOB blog recently highlighted some positive accolades from AT&T Business’s senior VP of Service Excellence Paul Rosenbaum, specifically regarding the company’s longstanding history with Stevens.
Rosenbaum expressed his pleasure with the Business Intelligence & Analytics students who interned at the company’s office in Hyderabad, India this past summer. “We know the quality of the students, and many of our executives are Stevens alumni. My team in India and my team in the U.S. were really impressed with these students’ capabilities,” he says.
He explains that because “Stevens business students are bilingual in business and analytics [they are] well suited to leading technical teams.”
Five Stevens School of Business interns, alongside several colleagues and AT&T employees, from the company’s Hyderabad office / Photo via stevens.edu
Of the experience in Hyderabad, Sanjay Pattanayak, ’18, writes, “This is the first place I’ve worked where equal opportunity is given to individuals to bring ideas to the table or suggest solutions, rather than just top-down leadership.”
“Having that independence, and being encouraged to put your ideas into action, enables the development of you as an individual and strengthens the organization.”
You can read more about the school’s program and Rosenbaum’s observations here.
Lehigh Announces New Philly Focus for Flex MBA – MetroMBA
Next Spring, Lehigh’s Flex MBA program will unveil two non-degree courses developed by the MBA Test Drive Program for prospective students at the school’s Center City Philadelphia location (1800 JFK Blvd).
“From Plan to Action: Strategy and Organization” will investigate “business model development in today’s competitive environment as well as the use of disruptive innovation in strategy development” while “From Private to Public Company: A Path to Exit” will survey the “considerations involved” in taking a company public.
You can learn more about the new Lehigh Flex MBA course offerings here.
A Stevens’ Therapy Startup for Trauma Victims, and More – New York City News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Mobile Treatment Tools Can Change Way People Recover from Trauma – Stevens Institute of Technology SOB News
The Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business recently profiled Mira Therapeutics, a new homegrown startup that uses tech to “help patients manage their symptoms, and give therapists powerful new treatment tools.”
Co-founded by Stevens students CJ Internicola, Seth Kirschner, Gregory Mercado, Nicholas Gattuso, and Annika Roll, the startup’s interactive Mira mobile app “guides patients through crises like flashbacks, anxiety attacks, and dissociation using clinically-established grounding techniques.
Specially designed for veterans, sexual assault survivors, police officers, medical providers, and many other people living with trauma, Mira also records progress by “automatically tracking symptoms and suggesting daily journal prompts.”
Internicola writes, “There are thousands of mobile apps on the market that improve mental health. We are creating technology that addresses problems unique to people living with PTSD. Mira is positioned to become a holistic improvement in the way people recover and grow from trauma.”
“We want to create technology that improves everyday life, translates into better therapy sessions, and ultimately, ameliorates suffering.”
You can find out more about the therapy startup here.
Democratizing Finance and the Unexpected Future of Fintech – Gabelli Connect
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman recently visited the Gabelli School of Business to share his insights about fintech at an event co-sponsored by the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis titled “Democratizing Finance: Expanding Access Through Fintech.”
Schulman told the audience, “We have a mission, which is democratizing financial services. It’s very inclusive [and it’s] about all citizens having access to the digital economy…probably the most important value for us is inclusion and diversity. Because if we have a mission that includes all citizens, we need to represent that as a company.”
Center for Financial Services Innovation president and CEO Jennifer Tescher used the event as an opportunity to talk about diversity in fintech—or lack thereof.
“I would say that, why don’t we have more women anywhere? I think it’s a particular challenge in the world of engineering, which cuts across any tech. Why don’t we have more women in financial services, forget about fintech. I think it’s a huge problem.”
You can find out more about the recent event here.
Summit Explores Future of Selling in a Digital World – Rutgers Business School News
As part of a summit that focused on “the future of selling in the digital world,” the Rutgers Business School recently hosted two panels comprised of a diverse array of sales executives:
Panel #1
- Phil Cohn, Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales for Samsung
- Jeff Clachko, Senior Vice President for NBC Sports Ad Sales
- Gary Carleton, President of Sales-Healthcare for UPS
- Tolga Akcura, Co-Founder of eBrandValue
- Joel Silverman, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Synchronoss Technologies
Panel #2
- Rita Fawcett, Vice President of Cardiovascular Sales for Bristol-Myers Squibb
- Frank Palumbo, Senior Vice of Cisco’s Global Date Center Sale
- Rahsan-Rashan Lindsay, Executive Vice President, TV One
- Jim Sterbenz, Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales at Campbell Soup
The first panel “delved into the role of analytics, metrics and customer relationship management for sales professionals” while the second panel focused on the “challenges and opportunities in sales as a result of technology.”
The keynote speaker was Cocoa Exchange President John Wycoff who extolled the virtues of the growing gig economy, which forecasts to have 7.7 million workers by 2020 due in large part to the growth of digital sales tools.
You can find out more about the recent event here.
Research Awards, Hackathons, Leadership, and More – New York City News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Four Executives Share the Essence of Leadership – Rutgers Business Blog
Citrin Cooperman partner Michael Napolitano moderated a discussion at this year’s Rutgers Business School CEO Evolution event between the following four executives:
- CEO and Angel Investor Braun Kiess
- MZM Construction and Management Owner and CEO Marjorie Perry
- Villa Restaurant Group President Biagio Scotto
- Yesterday’s Business Computers Cwner and CEO Tom Tsivgas
CEO Evolution is an annual platform for leaders to “inspire others in the business community.” This year’s guest speakers offered insights into their “challenges, mistakes, ambitions, individual strategies, and leadership styles.
Kiess talked about “what the next wave of college graduates will be looking for in their careers.”
“They don’t want to be just a cog in the wheel. They expect more from an employer than just a paycheck.”
You can read more from Rutgers Business News here.
Eyes on the Prize: Business, A.I. Skills Help Stevens Team’s Eye Health Entry Win Hackathon – Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business Blog
Stevens Institute of Technology School of Business’ Niraj Chaurasia, Medhavi Uniyal, and Vidya Sagar Polaki took home first prize at a one-day iCIMS hackathon last month, as well as prizes in Best Hack for Good and Best Use of A.I./Machine Learning, for a model that accurately “taught itself whether it was looking at a healthy or sick eye 90 percent of the time.”
The team used machine-learning techniques to build a “data set of healthy eyes, as well as eyes with various health problems, such as cataracts and glaucoma.”
Polaki explains that he hopes the team’s model might significantly reduce ophthalmology expenses and assist eye doctors in identifying eye problems.
“It costs, on average, $180 for an eye checkup in the U.S. So this would be a major cost savings. And when you visit the doctor, you have the data in hand, so you can be confident, have the right questions to ask and understand what remedy is available.”
You can learn more about the event here.
Economics Professor Receives Bright Ideas Research Award – Stillman School of Business News
Seton Hall University Stillman School of Business Professor of Economics Kurt Rotthoff received the Bright Ideas Award, which acknowledges faculty members “whose research significantly advances knowledge in their discipline area and delivers relevant findings to business practitioners.”
Rotthoff’s Journal of Sports Economics publication Structural Breaks in the Game: The Case of Major League Baseball, “analyzed nearly 150 years’ worth of Major League Baseball data [to] identify two significant eras: the free-swinging era, initiated by Babe Ruth, and the recent steroid era, marked by the increase of consistency in offensive power plays.”
Rotthoff explains:
“The research was exciting because it’s a method of measuring the performance of baseball players over time. Using batting statistics and some time-series statistical techniques, we determined certain points in the history of the sport that changed the entire game.”
You can learn more about Rotthoff’s research and award here.
Finance Fraud Won’t Stop, and More – New York News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
Don’t Let Artificial Intelligence Take Your Job – Rutgers Business News
The Rutgers Business School is slated to host a symposium this week entitled “Lifelong Learning in the Digital Era,” which will host LinkedIn, edX, Google, and McKinsey experts, among others, to “offer solutions to companies and individuals on how they can refresh their knowledge and skills and not become irrelevant in the new digital economy.”
Rutgers Dean Lei Lei says, “The pace of change in technology requires both management and the workforce to keep their skills current. Otherwise, they will lose out to competitors that have increased their efficiency and stimulated product innovation,” she said.
Rutgers Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Symposium Organizer Leon Fraser adds, “Recent college graduates as well as seasoned executives must refresh their skills regularly or risk becoming irrelevant and disposable.
You can read more about the recent symposium here.
It Pays to Cook the Books–Even When You Get Caught – Columbia Business School News
According to new research from Columbia Business School’s Shiva Rajgopal and Dan Amiram, along with researcher Serene Huang, the risk of detection for cooked books is only about 25 percent, which means that “more than half of perpetrators—most often the CEOs and CFOs of major companies—could find it beneficial to commit financial reporting misconduct.”
Rajgopal writes, “Unless regulators improve their processes, research shows that financial reporting misconduct will continue to be an attractive option.”
Their study, “Does Financial Reporting Misconduct Pay Off Even When Discovered?,” finds that “stock market losses are an effective deterrent: analysis shows that the average cost of getting caught amounts to $26.7 million, with the notable hits coming via stockholding and forgone earnings, suggesting that the stock market and the labor market are generally effective at punishing perpetrators.”
You can read the complete study here and the full article from Columbia Business School News here.
Young Professionals Earn Binghamton University MBA While Pursuing Full-Time Careers in NYC – Binghamton SOM Blog
The Binghamton University School of Management blog recently highlighted its one-year Professional MBA (PMBA), which enables students to earn MBAs while simultaneously pursuing careers via Saturdays-only classes.
“The PMBA program is designed specifically for New York City-based young professionals who are looking for a step up without temporarily stepping out of their relatively new careers.”
Trevor Smith (MBA ’17) and current district sales manager for Mazda of Boston writes, “It’s so much more than being able to look at data and know what’s going on—we learned how to deliver an effective message and story based on the data.”
“I feel much more comfortable communicating with top decision-makers than before, and it prepared me to better manage both my personal and professional life.”
Laurice LuSane (MBA ’15) and Weill Cornell Medicine Fellowship Coordinator adds, “What I was learning made me feel ready for something new. I was ready for new challenges at work. I was given more opportunities to speak out, to plan, to manage and to show I was capable.”
You can visit the program page here and check out the entire Binghamton SOM Blog entry here.
