“Our new Master of Science in Real Estate program is a professional degree built on DePaul’s robust tradition of finance and real estate course offerings that incorporates classes across colleges and disciplines, including marketing, law, public policy, geography and economics,” said Susanne Cannon, director of the Real Estate Center at DePaul, who oversees the program. “The program is geared to students seeking to advance their careers in real estate research, acquisitions analysis, portfolio management, mortgage lending and asset management, among other areas.”

The new program will be particularly appealing to real estate professionals who already have MBA degrees but want to gain a competitive edge by completing the advanced real estate seminars offered by the program, Cannon said. “Their previous course work will permit them to waive the prerequisite courses, and they could complete the program with as few as six courses.”

Students who do not waive prerequisite courses will take a 12-course sequence to complete the program. After a seven-course required sequence, students may select from courses in several disciplines, including marketing, economics, law, public policy and geography.

DePaul’s real estate program has incorporated a number of innovative course offerings, including a senior housing design and development class offered in the fall of 2004 that enrolled students and was team- taught by professors from three universities.

As part of that course, DePaul MBA students worked on teams with graphic design students from Kent State University and architecture students from Illinois Institute of Technology to produce a professional-quality proposal for a senior housing development for a juried competition. A similar course on affordable housing development will be offered in the fall of 2005. Another course in retail real estate development was team-taught by Cannon and a group of executives from General Growth Properties in January of 2005 and will be offered again this school year. Future courses include classes on brownfield development, architecture history, and real estate securitization.

The new master’s degree extends DePaul’s already established reputation as a premier source for real estate education. “We have had a strong core of real estate classes taught in the finance department for decades, with thousands of students carving out their own specializations,” Cannon explained. “In 2002, we formally created an MBA concentration in real estate investment and finance. Forty students have completed the program, and 78 are currently enrolled.” Real estate is one of 18 practical and flexible concentrations offered by the business school in its evening MBA program, which is ranked among the top-10 such programs by U.S. News & World Report.

DePaul introduced the bachelor’s degree program in real estate in January of 2005. This program’s introductory real estate analysis class, which existed even before the program was created, attracts more than 300 students a year. More than 70 students are now enrolled in advanced courses that make up the major. The degree is based in the College of Commerce but has a strong interdisciplinary component, with students taking subjects, such as architecture history or urban sociology, as part of their coursework.

Cannon said the job market for real estate grads has been very strong, especially in Chicago, a major hub for the industry. “Our graduates are employed in major firms, including Heitman Financial, Trizec Properties, First Industrial Realty, General Growth Properties, Equity Office and Equity Residential, LaSalle Bank, Walsh Construction, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and a wide variety of other organizations,” she said.

Since its launch in November of 2002, The Real Estate Center at DePaul has attracted $1.6 million in operational funding from 40 sponsoring real estate executives and institutions. The center oversees education, research and professional development programs tailored to the needs of professionals in the real estate industry and affiliated fields. For more information about real estate programs at DePaul, call 312/362-5906.