Interdisciplinary Certificate Focuses on Real Estate

The Haas School has joined UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design and School of Law in launching a real estate certificate program that better prepares students for the modern complexities of working in real estate investment, law, and development.  

In addition to earning a Berkeley MBA, students now have the opportunity to graduate with an Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Real Estate. The program is designed to better reflect the demands of companies hiring in the real estate industry today.

“Successful real estate professionals today have to understand the bigger picture of how real estate management and development interact with various disciplines, including business, law, architecture, and urban design,” says Nancy Wallace, a professor at Haas and co-chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics.

To earn a certificate, students must complete a minimum of three real estate-focused electives within the Haas School and two from one of the other colleges, including the Berkeley Law School, the Center for Environmental Design, and the Goldman School of Public Policy. The program is limited to graduate students enrolled in those three schools.

The new certificate program is the result of a multi-year collaboration among the deans, faculty, and students from each of the three schools and is part of an ongoing effort to enhance cross-disciplinary education. The schools piloted the certificate program last spring.

Coursework that qualifies to meet certificate requirements is offered in business, city, and regional planning, architecture, real estate law, land use planning, and public policy.

Students may enroll in specialized, multi-disciplinary courses in urban and architectural design, study the development and entitlements process, train in financial and asset market analysis, learn the legal foundations of real estate transactions, and explore housing and land use policy.

Additionally, students are required to take part in at least one real estate case competition, such as the NAIOP Real Estate Challenge against Stanford University, the Bank of America Low Income Housing Challenge, or the National Real Estate Challenge.

Membership on these competitive teams gives students unparalleled hands-on experience with real world development and investment banking problems and the opportunity to demonstrate expertise in world-class venues, Wallace says. Teams give students the opportunity to "focus their energy on something very concrete and highlight what the program can accomplish for them,” she says.

Learn more about the certificate here.

Prof. Nancy Wallace
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