This is the first part in a series called Diary of a Grad Student. Our writer is a current Master of Science in Real Estate candidate at Baruch College in New York. She will be chronicling her everyday experiences as a student in the graduate program. Check back here each week for more!
Why am I pursuing a second Master’s Degree in real estate? That’s the question I get asked the most when people find out I’m working towards my MS in Real Estate degree at Baruch College. The answer is quite simple: I’ve always been interested in real estate finance and am driven to pursue commercial real estate as a career.
My interest in real estate was first awakened when I was first pursuing my master in finance degree. I realized that though U.S. commercial property market took a hit during the 2008-2009 recession, it had experienced annual gains since 2010. The market has since recovered almost all recession-era losses, as both commercial real estate prices and rents collected from commercial property are on the rise. This realization piqued my interest in the possibilities of commercial real estate.
From this moment, the idea of taking CRE (Commercial Real Estate) or CMBS (Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities) research as my future career path started growing. I like the fact that real estate is essentially a hybrid asset class, since it has both an equity investment/capital gain component as well as a fixed income/coupon portion in the form of rents. I also find commercial real estate interesting as different segments may perform differently, which provides a challenge for any analyst. While malls may be the next bigshot, offices and apartments have recovered past the prior peaks. With this constant movement in trends, commercial real estate is a non-stop, exhilarating, evolving and dynamic industry.
To better achieve my career expectation, I started the MS in Real Estate (MSRE) program at Baruch, not only because New York is the best place to get exposed to real estate, but also because Baruch provides a lot of great opportunities to communicate with professionals in commercial real estate industries. Through my classes and numerous networking events, I can learn more about the industry trends and gain insight into market opportunities, directly from the experts.
Besides the knowledge provided in fundamental real estate courses, the MSRE program at Baruch also focuses on the use of advanced analytical tools such as Argus and Excel modeling, which can be very competitive skillsets for real estate major students in the job market.
Having a sense of the real commercial real estate industry is also quite critical; the MSRE program at Baruch provided exactly what I expected, as the program has great relations with big names in the real estate industry. The real estate department invites professionals in the commercial real estate industry to the campus for panels or networking events on regular basis to keep students up-to-date on the latest industry trends. As President of the Real Estate Club at Baruch, I’ve been able to invite guest speakers to share their experiences in the industry in order to inspire more students like myself who would like to commit to real estate finance.
In general, I really appreciate the MSRE program at Baruch College. I know I made the right choice with this program, and know that my experiences here will benefit my future career.
– Shuo Wang