Admissions – Class of 2011
The Cornell Program in Real Estate admissions team, led by Susan Tosto, Coordinator of Admissions and Student Services, sorted through a record number of applications in selecting the Class of 2011 that began this fall. Not only is the Class of 2011 the most competitive in the Program’s history but also represents the most selective.
“We were concerned about how the state of the overall economy would impact admissions this year yet found applicants very optimistic about where the real estate industry will be in two years when they plan to graduate,” said Tosto. The incoming class averages 29 years of age and six years of professional experience although one third come from fields other than real estate, including engineering and small business development. Students came from 14 different states and six foreign countries, and came from undergraduate institutions ranging from the Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Naval Academy, UC-Berkeley, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, and Wisconsin, to name a few. International students also hailed from Taiwan, Italy, Thailand, Korea, Nigeria and China, and included 17% women.
The Program in Real Estate recently launched a strategic research initiative with CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women), which is also anticipated to increase the number of women in the Program. “Diversity, including work experience, international and under-represented groups, is critically important in today’s real estate industry and to our Program,” says David Funk, Director of the Cornell Program in Real Estate, adding that the Program will undertake a benchmarking study entitled, “Women in Commercial Real Estate: 2010”, which will document the advancement and achievements of women working in the commercial real estate sector.
The incoming students represent diverse educational backgrounds with undergraduate disciplines that include communication, finance, accounting, economics, engineering, political science, business administration and environmental studies. They come from a wide range of professional occupations as well – mortgage finance, construction, project management, hotel management, architecture, property management, investment banking and appraisal services, to name a few. In a survey taken at Orientation, the majority of the incoming class has named “Development” as an intended concentration with six of those specifying “Sustainable Development.” Reputation, comprehensive two-year immersion in real estate, and the Cornell network were the reasons most often cited as to why students chose Cornell.
| Year | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Completed Applications | 52 | 52 | 73 | 83 | 153 | 163 |
| Enrolled | 15 | 17 | 20 | 26 | 25 | 23 |