Looking forward to an average first-year salary and bonus of $110,000, more female students are studying for a Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) degree from the University of Southern California, according to the University’s Lusk Center for Real Estate (www.usc.edu/lusk).
”A third of the incoming MRED class is comprised of women, an all-time high that reflects the growing diversity in real estate across the board,” said Sonia Savoulian, the Lusk Center’s director of Alumni and Student Services. “We have found that women graduates frequently become entrepreneurs because they want flexibility when raising their families,” she added.
The 63 graduate students enrolled in the current real estate development program hail from 11 states and two foreign countries, attracted by the opportunity to be exposed to leading bankers, investors, developers, lawyers, architects and accountants who conduct guest lectures and provide on-site visits to their projects across Southern California, according to Raphael Bostic, Ph.D., director of the MRED program.
“We are one of the few programs in the country with a solid core of Ph.D. faculty assisted by visiting instructors who are involved in some of the major real estate developments in the nation,” he added. The students’ course of study includes real estate law and entitlements, finance, market analysis, site planning, project management and design.
Savoulian said MRED graduates have benefited from the program’s increased facilitation of networking with industry titans, which has boosted the program’s job placement record—80 percent of the previous MRED class had jobs before they graduated this past May
Stan Ross, chairman of the Lusk Center board of directors, found that employers he talks to are increasingly searching for students with strong communications and “people” skills who can navigate the complex and sometimes contentious zoning and approval processes. “The good judgment skills displayed by our students are in demand by employers who expect their future leaders to make tough management decisions,” Ross added.
The most recent graduates of the program are working for several real estate development firms including Lennar Corporation, Standard Pacific Homes, Centex Homes, KB Home, Regency Centers, Toll Brothers and Intrawest.