Program in Real Estate Cornell University

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The Cornell Real Estate Experience

The Real Estate experience at Cornell is far reaching and multi-faceted, stretching beyond a single department to include multiple Colleges and beyond the campus through extensive alumni, Cornell Real Estate Council, and industry connections. It is no surprise that some consider Cornell the most comprehensive of graduate real estate experiences.

The Best of Seven Colleges

The Program’s seventeen full-time real estate field faculty are selected from seven colleges at Cornell to create a unique interdisciplinary structure. The core courses in the Program in Real Estate are drawn from each of the colleges to create a truly multidisciplinary educational experience that utilizes the full resources of a world-class teaching and research institution. The real estate industry requires multiple perspectives and talents; at Cornell that interdisciplinary approach is alive.

Cornell real estate faculty are drawn from nationally prominent colleges and respective departments, creating the rare opportunity for affiliation with multiple top-ranked individual colleges and disciplines within the graduate real estate program. (See Select Rankings of Real Estate Affiliated Colleges at Cornell)

The result is that student’s come to recognize that real estate knowledge and leadership requires broad exposure, from architectural design to construction management to real estate finance/investment to real estate development to deal structuring and on. The ability to specialize in a real estate niche, furthermore, creates the opportunity to maximize Cornell’s extensive real estate offerings in sculpting a concentration ideally suited to the individual student’s interests.

Full-Time Faculty

Cornell boasts the largest full-time, on-campus real estate faculty in the country, including three endowed positions in real estate. Most have extensive professional experience, industry ties, and garner recognition for their work and research, yet the focus is on dedication to classroom teaching. Full-time faculty, not adjuncts or graduate assistants, are the standard in the Cornell Program in Real Estate.

John “Jack” Corgel co-authored what has been the leading principles of real estate textbook in the country. C. Bradley Olson developed master-planned communities in southern California during a xx-year career prior to joining the Cornell faculty. Robert Abrams was CEO of a leading New York City property management company prior to joining the Cornell faculty full-time. Frank Becker wrote the book on workplace design. These are a few of the teaching faculty that students meet in class.

The selective nature of the program keeps class sizes small to encourage frequent one-on-one interaction between students and faculty. Each student also works closely with their faculty advisor, who is there to provide course-selection guidance and expertise in a given area of specialization.

Career Management

Real estate career development and management often begins before students arrive on campus and continues with active alumni support after graduation. Cornell’s exclusive Real Estate Career Guide© program is a career development and placement process integrated throughout the two year graduate program that ultimately prepares students for internship and career success. Incoming students benefit from workshops and counseling sessions designed to prepare them for interviews and salary negotiations. Second-year students benefit from presentation skill development and preparation for their transition following graduation. The small class size and dedicated career services staff enables each student to have continual, personal interaction with career services.

Students also benefit from ongoing activities designed to promote their capabilities and accomplishments to employers nationally and internationally. An annual recruiting guide containing students’ pictures, biographies, and resumes is widely distributed each year. Not surprisingly, the program maintains 100% internship placement and graduates students fully prepared to assume leadership roles throughout the industry. (See Career for more information about Career Management)

High-Profile Access

Cornell real estate students become part of and benefit from access to the Cornell Real Estate Council, believed to be the largest university-affiliated network of real estate professionals. The annual Cornell Real Estate Conference, now in its 25th year, brings many alumni and other industry leaders to campus for panel discussions and direct student interactions. Through the Real Estate Industry seminar series offered every semester, meanwhile, students receive weekly insights from industry icons and keep apprised of current issues and projects in the field. At Cornell you get -- and stay -- connected to the real estate industry. (See Academics to learn more about the seminar series)

Scholarship and Practical Research

The Cornell Real Estate Review (CRER) is the country’s premier student-managed scholarly journal in the real estate field. The CRER is a scholarly journal providing a conduit for scholars, professional practitioners, and students to express ideas, concepts and research findings from all fields related to the real estate profession. The Review, unique as a student edited and managed real estate journal, is similar to a Law Review as the student editorial board referees and edits submissions from scholars and practitioners worldwide.

Students solicit and receive articles, initiate the editing process and oversee the Review’s publication. The Review brings together today’s foremost real estate practitioners and scholars with tomorrow’s industry leaders, forging a greater understanding of emerging trends and forecasts in the industry. The Review focuses on the interdisciplinary nature of real estate by blending both informative practical papers with application based academic research across the breath of design, business, economics, engineering, finance, law, planning, development, marketing and property management.

Opportunities for Success

While in school students have the chance to compete in industry-sponsored competitions, including the Urban Land Institute (ULI) – Hines Urban Design competition and the Real Estate Finance Challenge, as well as serve as active participants in such Cornell events as the Entrepreneurship in Real Estate symposium, the Real Estate Project Workshop, and the annual Cornell Studies in Urban Development (CSUD) workshop.

A common thread to these competitions and events is the formation of multiple discipline teams that focus intensely on real-life real estate projects that carry real outcomes.

Why Choose Cornell Real Estate?

From world-class faculty to individualized career management, from an extensive alumni network to direct contact with established leaders, Cornell’s Program in Real Estate brings together the best elements and resources of an Ivy League university to create a complete interdisciplinary educational experience that is at once comprehensive and yet affords niche specialization.

Explore further to discover what real estate industry insiders already know—if you are serious about graduate real estate education, Cornell is the place to be.