nareit logo

The Professionals’ Choice for Real Estate Jobs
  1. Home
  2. Resources
  3. Real Estate Schools
  4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business

  • Type: Public
  • Degree(s): Both

About

They deliver a Master of Science in Finance (MSF) degree that is simply superior in quality to others. They've been doing it consistently for 50 years, innovating along the way to ensure that students in this program graduate with a mastery of finance that sets them apart from other professionals in the market. The College of Business is ranked as the thirteenth best program for Undergraduate studies in the United States. The University of Illinois was just ranked #1 for Public Universities in the Midwest for Best ROI.

Core Focus

Bachelor of Science in Finance, Real Estate Concentration
Master of Science in Finance, Real Estate and Urban Land Economics

Program Highlights

Real estate is a multi-disciplinary field but most of the courses offered emphasize the finance discipline; for example, investments in real property, valuation of real property; debt financing of real property, etc. One exception is the real estate law course. A wide variety of career opportunities are available in the real estate field, including: 1) real estate appraisal/valuation; 2) real estate brokerage; 3) corporate real estate; 4) real estate consulting; 5) real estate development; 6) mortgage lending; and 7) property management.

A typical entry-level job would be as an investment or financial analyst for firms as diverse as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), insurance companies with real estate investment divisions, accounting firms with real estate consulting/valuation divisions, commercial banks in their mortgage lending divisions, etc. As for all other areas, employers want to see strong communications skills and high levels of technical skills (for example: with Excel and Argus, the industry standard for analyzing cash flows generated by rental properties such as office, retail, industrial, and apartments).

Source: https://business.illinois.edu/msf/program/real-estate/

*This information is based on the school's 2017/2018 program and may not reflect changes, updates or deletions to the programs.