 We're excited to have you come and join us for a conversation about our real estate development program at Columbia University. We're here to tell you a little about the program today, but most importantly, to answer your questions. So what we'll do is we'll make a brief presentation about a number of things and then definitely open the floor. If you do have anything specific that you'd like to raise immediately, just pop it in the chat. Okay, well, welcome. This is, this is going to be first just a little bit of a dynamic interview. The focus of our program has never been one that is intentionally and and arrogantly transformative, but one that explores the very process of creating and delivering the real estate product and being stewards of this life cycle of buildings. The historical mainstream approach contains real estate development experience and its narratives within a hierarchy of power legitimacy. That is dependent upon perpetuated identifications, cultural mores and standards. You are young people in the real the future of real estate is ahead of you and you will be agents for what it is to be. So therefore we ask you to come and learn and understand and critique and improve the real estate development process. We work beyond traditional practice where we confront aesthetics with economics. We work beyond capital power with social need and where the developer architect designer creates and delivers the built environment in an extensive and exploratory way. And real estate as a socio spatially environmentally and financially deeply intersectional activity enables us to achieve more, more openly a quality constructability adaptability over time. We believe the communities of the stakeholders that we start with, we work very locally, but also understand the importance of non US centric and inclusive approaches to real estate development given that three quarters of our students come from and will work in different settings and have a broad range of geographies, climates, political and social environments to attend to. I'm very proud that we've been able to expand and increase the variety of students that we have in our program ranging from architects and designers through to economists through to people who have no prior experience in real estate, but bring an interesting and intensive background. As of this semester about half of our students in real estate combine a number of past disciplines. So if you're pivoting and you've already had some long work experience, that's fine, we're able to work by adding a new dimension. And therefore, I believe here at GSAP we have actively altered the social spectrum and the face of real estate programs much remains to be done and that's what we do daily and that's what we will do with your being with us in the program. So welcome. Okay, we'll pop that off. There we go. Hi. I just like to say, give a few, you know, basic details about the program is a three semester program over one calendar year you start in the summer in June, you graduate in the following May. These messages are very specifically organized such that the first semester is about a breadth of information. As I mentioned, students come from all different backgrounds. However, to address real estate, we all need to come together and understand quite a variety of different areas and dimensions. So do that collectively. It doesn't matter what you've specialized in before you come and you participate in the collective development of knowledge across all the dimensions of real estate. So the first semester we learn financial analysis we learn about capital markets, we learn about the urban context we learn about the political imperatives for real estate. In terms of architectural design, you learn how to actually also communicate with some drawing. You learn how to communicate with Excel models. You learn how to participate in all these different dimensions. The first semester is one where, as I say, we developed basically the lay of the land, the ground plane. In the second semester, we start deeper dives into various areas of real estate investment and debt structuring. You learn about REITs, real estate investment trusts. You do debt securitization. You do analysis of leases. So your financial knowledge gets really, really intense and solid in this semester. Additionally, though, we are continuing to work on deeper dives with respect to the physical dimensions of buildings. We continue to work with the design possibilities, the urban context and so on in that second semester. Then in the third semester, we come back together with a synthesis, a synthesis of all these things that you've been learning the deep dives and so on. You bring them together to present a comprehensive real estate development project resolution. You start with a site or an existing building. You work out what's possible in terms of changing that building format or creating a new one. You look at the real estate market, see what is in demand. You look at the capital markets, see what capital is available and what that capital requires in terms of returns and interest rates. You bring together a plan, a schematic, you actually schematically determine the plan for a real estate development. You do the financing, you do the construction loan, you do the permanent takeout, you do the equity raise and the equity waterfall. You look towards the lease and the filling up of the lease up of the building. Or by that final semester, you are demonstrating your comprehensive capability across real estate in its many dimensions. Now, although some of you will say I'm coming to a real estate development program, but I really only want to, I think I'll only be doing finance. Well, that's really good to have an intention. But one thing is that you probably don't choose too much the exact area of your specialization in real estate. The economy is very much correlated to real estate. Real estate is very dependent upon what is happening in the economy. When there's a lot of capital, when there's a need for new buildings, real estate is all about development. If there's no capital or we're starting to pull back economically, then it's all about managing the financial dimensions of existing buildings and so on. So really, you know, to have a successful career in real estate and this is what mine has been, ranging from community activism through development, through adaptive reviews, through a REIT fund, through private equity investment, through debt restructuring. To have a career that is able to cover all those dimensions, depending upon what's needed and what you can opportunistically be involved in, you need to have this breadth of understanding that you will gain in this program. But of course, you will then go and, you know, specialize as you wish over time, but even so, knowing what everything, every other component of real estate is about is very important to your understanding and your, your best real estate activity. Real estate is, although it's a commercial transaction, it is an investment asset. It is one that we also live in every day. We're confronted with, we understand the need, we understand the use, we do that ourselves. We're both understanding what it means to be a person who uses real estate, who uses a building, who lives in a building, who works in a building. And we're also a person who knows how to create a building, finance a building, and, and manage a building. So therefore you're learning very comprehensive approach to understanding real estate. The, we have being one program, we're very intensive. So that means that, you know, it's full on from the word go. Many people come in saying, I want to start thinking about my job because it's only one year away. It's not best to be thinking about a job in the summer of your starting of the program. Firstly, you haven't learned much at all yet. But most importantly, real estate doesn't hire in a big advanced, in a, in an advanced timeframe. Real estate tends to hire much, much closer to understanding its needs. So the activity of actually getting a job really ramps up in about February, March of your program. I still say though that I'm interested in this. I'm interested in that. I suggest that you will probably lose a big opportunity to really know something or learn something that you've never thought of before, if you close your mind to all of the possibilities. I always say, come in, be a sponge, learn what real estate is broadly, particularly in that summer semester. If you're going to lose, you're going to be tested on it. So you may as well just really love the journey of getting to know everything. If you go to other programs, if you go to an MBA, you will probably be more specifically just about the transactions, financial transactions, debt and equity. If you go to an open planning program, you're going to be much more about the physical aspects of real estate. We are really absolutely intent on pulling both together, making you competent in both areas so that you're able to make best real estate decisions no matter where you find yourself in your career. So, but the career is important. And what we do is we have, we have a great team of folks here and I'm just going to introduce them. Stockton King is the senior associate director of real estate for academic activities. She looks after all of, we've got 70 courses. She's got to manage where those courses are, what the scheduling is on those courses, the professors and so on, where they are, the TAs, your enrollment and registration for those courses and so on. And she knows all of this and will help you and will train you through that. She also oversees the clubs that you elect to set up. We really encourage students to be about a network. The real estate is not an activity that you do by yourself. It always involves other people. It involves connections with other people. And we suggest and encourage that forming of the network within the cohort, within the program. We also support your reaching out to alumni, industry figures. We bring them in. We create mentorships for you and so on. So you're building a network externally at the same time. But very importantly, it's great to work on things that you share with your classmates and forming clubs that are interest clubs, such as about private equity, such as about the design for development, such as about triple bottom line or sports clubs, soccer, basketball, whatever. These are things that you form and Jessica oversees the administration of that. Students also set up absolutely great events. We have students do social events. We have students bring in guest speakers. We have students arrange tours to see great pieces of real estate. Jessica manages all of that so that we, everyone knows what's going on. And then we, and we have Rebecca Hollamida. Rebecca is, she is here, she is over here, saying Columbia Mezroid Program. Rebecca is dedicated to your industry outreach and your career. I'd like to work with you a little initially in the summer just to tell you what to expect ahead of you in future semesters. However, mainly in the semester she's working with getting the prior graduates into settled into their jobs. And she starts to pick up with you on the activities with more detail in the fall. And then we have a career, a career event in the spring and lots and lots of guidance about doing a resume she'll speak about that. And then we have Thelma Colado. Thelma is she is therefore working on all your data needs. We have a lot of access to data registers. She also most importantly will tell you weekly what the big events are what's coming up. It's organized by your students by the university by the school, even by industry. So Thelma is just wonderful at pulling all those things and keeping them in front of you. Okay, so that's, that's where we are with respect to the We will probably what do you think Jessica we go to Rebecca Rebecca, you got your PowerPoint. Yes, absolutely. Hey, all right. Thank you. I want to share my screen. Right. See, you guys can see this. Can you see this. Yep. Good. Yeah, you. Excellent. Is that better. The whole screen you got there we go. Good. Well you've got the whole screen there with all the surrounding bits. I do. It says I have it all full screen. Jessica. All good. All right, off we go. Thank you. All right, so my name is Rebecca Anderson Palomita. Like director Darrington said I'm in charge of all the career services and professional development while you're here for three semesters. As Professor Darrington said this is a very, very intense degree and it's a very, very intense three semesters. My purpose is to work with you on an individual basis. It's very, very important for me to get to know who you are. What you want to do and where you want to go. Just as this PowerPoint is just very, very simple. These are some of the things that are offered. Obviously the individual sessions with me. We do offer a spring career fair seminars career folks. We do focus launch box lectures. We do alumni cocktail events. We have a great mentorship program where you're paired with somebody the entire year. I kind of do like a, I call it a matchmaking service because I really want you to form long bonds with people. We also have the spring internship program and a job board that is just dedicated just to GSEP for positions for you all. Here's some of the topics that you will learn over the year. Just like Professor Darrington said, your focus is to be a sponge in the summer to learn in the summer. And then you and I will start creating conversations in the fall and obviously continue those into the spring. My goal for you for the summer is just to get to know who you are, why you chose Columbia and what is your interest in real estate. Okay. When I come to the program I do a huge orientation in the beginning, talking about different careers in real estate to kind of jumpstart that process. But these are just some of the topics that you will learn. This is just giving you a snapshot of the class of 2022. Obviously we're on the class of 2024 the class of 2023. I don't do that survey until six months out, I will say that we've had consistent placement. We're here for eight years doing real estate careers for 12. Because of what Director Darrington did to change this program to make you fully immersed in the financial and development aspect. In real estate. We have more students who are going into more of financial roles. But that's okay financial roles can be like I said anything from private equity acquisitions debt. Or purely project management roles. Then we're getting a tick up in the finance and development roles which is kind of a hybrid role which we say is following the entire real estate and development process from. I'm so sorry I don't think it's advancing the PowerPoint. I didn't advance it. Oh, I'm sorry. This part was. Just the first one. What. You can't see it now is this better. Great. That's okay. Um, all right so again I'm on the screen obviously with a different positions that students have gone in the last class in the class of 2022. Like I was saying the finance and development or the hybrid roles which you know incorporate the finance piece and the development piece so it's basically doing a capstone project. On the job daily which you will obviously learn when you come here in your third semester. We do have students come from family business go into family business, lots of entrepreneurship in the program. And I would say between seven and 10% of the class I don't know where they go they come here that you know stay a little bit quiet and then they, they move on and that's okay not everybody has to meet with me that's totally fine. These are some job examples of those who go into the finance world right so you'll see some of here is an equity and some of it is in debt some of it is an asset management. So those this is just a snapshot. These are job title examples for those who go on to development. You know like I said straight up project management development analysts and associate those are the titles for the hybrid roles. This is just a snapshot of that. And then this is just a snapshot of the sample firms that actually do internships and hire full time from us this is not the entire list this just kind of gives you a full gamut of fully integrated firms, banks, funds, things like that so just want to give you a snapshot of that. If you have any questions about anything let me know this is like I said just a snapshot but the biggest thing I will tell you is when you come to the program you have access to me. Summer is is your sponge summer is your sponge semester of just immersing yourself, then I really really you know get to know you and we start doing a whole bunch of networking in the fall individual networking group networking and then starting in January February, we really start pushing that full time recruitment effort. So I just want you to be aware. Our program is an off cycle program so since we are not an MBA program. Our positions come on a rolling basis. If I get somebody who comes in here pretty young and wants to do a summer 2024 full time role. That's only about a handful of students. The majority of our students students get placed in full time roles that are that are rolling but like I said when when you come to the program if you decide to come to the program will get into that nitty gritty a little bit more. So please feel free to email me if you need any more information. But like I said, if you have any questions also since I worked at the NYU program before I understand that recruitment process so if you have any questions about that also let me know. So it sounds good Jessica. I think that sounds amazing. I think that we should talk to Thelma briefly but because that and also introduce a Nika who's here. But we don't have a big student portion for for some of you who might have attended yesterday as well so we do have a lot more time for for q&a so if you have specific questions we can jump into it or you can put it in chat to. This is Thelma she's the assistant director she's amazing. Thelma, do you want to tell them a little bit more about your newsletter or some of the tech resources they can expect when they come here. Sure. I created a weekly newsletter where I start off at the top with messages from the office. And then in chronological order I'll list industry events, events with clubs on campus events with other schools. Sometimes our students partner with NYU or Fordham for mixers or parties. So all of that is detailed with the links so that you can register. Most of the events that I advertise are free events, because as students, who has extra money right so I highlight everything free, lots of things in the city happening tours. Info sessions. And then I also manage the software for the students. So we have things like Argus and Compstack and Moody's and Bloomberg terminals and all of that access comes from my side of the office. What else can I tell you, if you're interested in a software that we don't have access to an example of this is this year with deep locks. And she approached me to discuss deep blocks. Now it's a fantastic software. It costs $10,000 a month. So, I was able to get the students two months free access, and the CEO is coming this week to meet with our students give a short training session, and she has promised access to the students that attend free access until they graduate. That's, that's fantastic. So if there's anything that you're interested in you can let us know the same with clubs if there's a club you'd like to create that does not exist on campus. We will help you set that up also. The biggest thing with clubs is being inclusive so you couldn't just be like this is a private equity club and it's limited to 10 people, and I've decided to attend. So, as long as your classmates can get involved. That's that's the thing that we want to foster that student connection and you know that that part of it. So, should you have a moment I know a lot of you have probably already talked to her. Yeah, I recognize some of the names on the call which is pretty exciting. Hi again and hi to all of you that I haven't met yet. I'm the only current student on the call now because I think everyone's in their underwriting exam but I am a dual degree candidate which means I won't be taking Oh thank you. We'll be taking underwriting till next year. As Jessica mentioned I'm a Nica. I'm the current class president of the MS red program and I'm also president of the GSAP wide student council. Before this I was also at Columbia I did my undergrad here and I graduated in 2022. And I started my summer semester about 12 days after graduating so I really really love this school I'm happy to answer any questions you have from dining halls to the curriculum. So they went over this a bit already I just hopped on the call but one of the really special parts about GSAP is we are eight programs under one umbrella and especially as a dual degree candidate I really reap the benefits of having this interdisciplinary curriculum. Just as design can be very technical and financial finance can also be very creative and conceptual and as part of the program you're really sourcing all of that knowledge and you're interacting with all of your other classmates and so happy to answer any questions you have about the curriculum about student life organizations, Columbia in general, I am fully committed to this school and into the amazing offerings that has and you have a great support system here. Rebecca Thelma Jessica Patrice that that can really assist you with any questions you have as well. Someone and Rebecca responded but someone asked what would just get damaged this program from other MSRDs in the US. There are so many real estate programs out there when I started there were just a handful when I go to the ULI. This program has been around since 1985 so we have a ton of alumni out there in the real estate industry and all sides of it finance development. I'd also say that the location in New York. I know there are other programs in New York. We're one of them that's great for guest speakers for building tours for just being at the center of kind of what's happening all of our. We have five full time professors but we have a bunch of adjuncts we're very active in the real estate industry and they bring in foreign deals and things that are happening and the responses to things that are happening in the market. Also within architecture school there aren't any that many programs without affiliation Patrice do you have any other things you'd like to say. Yeah I know absolutely you know being in New York people often say are you just New York centric and you know where we are but we aren't. New York City offers so much in terms of cutting edge activity professionals professors our alumni and so on that we do learn a lot we learn so much from New York City. However we're also aware that students come from all over the world and we what we do is we talk about how these things these basic principles you learn and and the analysis. We have a lot of history over the world so although we're New York centric we we do have study trips we have we have people coming from all different areas to talk about real estate with you. I guess speakers and so on. So in New York we have the you know your adjunct professors were able to pull in their top of the game there the head partner of real estate tax at PWC there the head CNBS trade or a Deutsche bank. These are the professors that come in as adjunct professors to teach you and that you get to know. That's really one thing about New York the other thing is that other programs in New York City such as Fordham and NYU are in schools of continuing education. We're in a school in a what's called a professional school and that is you know school of real estate. What we what we also do is we include a lot more about development. Business as I said business schools and then NYU really really focus on the transactional part of real estate that is investment or financial structuring. We really build up a knowledge of the asset and I think this is important going forward because all of the problems that are becoming critical in the real estate sector such as environmental sustainability. New new layouts new prototypes for buildings and so on. Social equity, all of these things cannot be solved by just transactions. They require an understanding of built form and an ability to manipulate and change and and optimize built form. And that's what we teach that is unusual to to many other programs. We differ from programs like Harvard and MIT and that we're larger. You have a larger cohort that you get to know about 120 students. And that of course feeds into a larger network of alumni we now have about 3200 alumni all around the world. So you're you're becoming part of that. Additionally, of course, you know versus MIT and Harvard or in Boston, I know they don't have the ability to have to bring in the adjunct professors and the guest speakers as regularly as we are. So, you know, I think we're just so well poised being both in a school of the built environment in a city like New York, and yet so internationally linked through the composition of the student program, plus, you know, how New York relates to the rest of the world. Okay, we are just a couple of these really quickly. MSRD is not a STEM program. So, but we do have a lot of international students who come through. Usually, Rebecca recommends that they consider doing CPT or part time internship to lead to a position. Rebecca, sorry, I'm speaking for you if you want to talk and then do the year of OPT and then basically only considering companies that would consider sponsoring you in the H1B if you do want to stay longer. If you want to stay for a year, some people want to go to London because I guess there's a visa where you can work there for a little bit afterwards. So it people's interest absolutely change over the course of the program. For family support, we definitely have had people with kids, Rebecca and I both have kids. I will say the program is really a 9am to 9pm thing. It helps to have sitting, you know, someone who can help out with that. I don't want to sugarcoat it. It's tricky, just like with all the navigating, you know, having outside commitments. But we've had people more than one person with four kids that go through the program. And then there are other people like Jeff who was speaking yesterday has a newborn, Blake who was speaking yesterday has two kids. You know, people do it. It's just, it's really, you're here all the time. So figuring out, I mean, the New York City public school system is fantastic. So, you know, I'm happy to help you look up stuff with that but I wouldn't say there's a ton on campus, though there are some family events like homecoming this last weekend they had like family day and stuff like that. There's no financial resources specifically for families and support and so on. And usually typically the, you know, students will stay closer to campus so the commute is a lot easier so they can come back and forth with ease with sitters and classes and things like that so getting close to campus I think is key. I think so too. Yes, and I think I've addressed the question about how this program compares with an MBA with the real estate finance focus. I was just saying, if you do the focus and real estate finance you take a minimum of four classes and real estate finance and we have more than four core classes related to finance that you have to take when you count underwriting real estate investment fundamentals and finance one two and three and all the modeling. So it's just how much real estate you want. Yeah, and MBA programs I know I'm a Harvard MBA myself MBA programs do not generally they deliberately stay broad management, they don't allow you to really focus, except for somewhere like water that has a specific school and program. So therefore Columbia you will have a handful of courses and many many Columbia MBA students come and take out electives, because we've got such a wide variety and deeper dives. So that's how how it varies. The GMAT is optional. And we're not, we're not talking about minimum score or anything like that what is key for your admission is being able to show to demonstrate that you have capability that capability needs to be across the quantitative aspects, and across the reading writing comprehension aspects. I really like a GMAT GRE test for you to one refresh your knowledge many people it's quite a while since you did undergraduate statistics or something like that, you will need that math for this program. Very good to refresh yourself with the studies and with the test for GMAT GRE. Also, if we don't have any guidance if we're trying to sit through your undergraduate grades and so on with respect to capability. It's, it's very hard to admit you with any confidence. We don't want to waste your time or your money, you know by having by admitting you to a program that you're not going to be able to manage. And so therefore, we know that there is a certain capability that has to be demonstrated and made obvious to us for you to take a place in the program. We've made it optional because some people do have they've been working for three five years in real estate development, financial structure. So, you know, they've got a pretty distinct experience to demonstrate what they've been doing. However, many don't and and we really like this way of of extracting the information from you and assuring you that we think that the program is right for you. We don't have a part time MSRD program. I'll also say the summer is just extra busy because Professor Darrington has set up a number of non credit boot camps to kind of get everyone ready to go with Jonathan Miller and David Cruz. And John Lyons related to reading construction drawings and residential market analysis and real estate financial statements and accounting. So it's it's a lot of stuff that's very good for you but you're, you're very busy in the summer. Yes, and you know it's a full time program. We put things on, you know, during the day during the week, and you're expected to be there, and saying that you're working is not an excuse. So, you know, just there are programs that offer part time. And, you know, that's a very distinct option, but we are definitely not. No, there is no rolling admissions for the program. It's one cohort. We really pride ourselves on having a networked cohort, 120 students approximately each year, come in, start together, develop together, evolve, do projects together, and, you know, and learn from each other. If you are coming straight out of college you can do the program we don't have a very specific work experience requirement. How and and if you do have some very strong internship experience and you know what real estate is actually about and what working in real estate is about. It might be prepared. However, you will find most of your classmates do have some work experience understanding the, you know, how the real estate industry actually functions in the workplace is important for your ability to work out what you need to learn and how to prepare yourself for your job. So, I do recommend at least a couple of years work experience before coming to the program. Other questions. The geographic distribution after graduation. It changes. Basically, as I say real estate is very correlated to the economy. So sometimes New York City is just humming with real estate development activity. At other times, New York City has nothing going on in terms of development. Yes, it still has activity in finance and workouts and debt, but the world itself is like that. So the geographic distribution is essentially you go where the jobs that you want. So for instance over the last five years a lot of our students who are doing development have gone to Florida, Texas, Arizona, Southern California, and so on. You know, the jobs are not created in in your desired geographic location for you. It's a it's a matter of reading the market and going where the activity is. So really the geography changes all over time. It does change over time. I agree. But I just want to let them know to that we do have placement all over the country and in London. If you're looking for a location other than New York, please be open to it. An urban planning background is an interesting base for for doing real estate. Urban planning programs themselves are very, very different. Some are very policy oriented. Others are very physical planning or oriented. So just an urban planning program is a bit hard to know what your background is. One thing I can say is that real estate is not urban planning with a commercial overlay. Real estate is not about being tracks of land being divided up into, you know, urban plans that type of activity is still occurs in some places but it's it's not really what most of the real estate industry is about it. It adds up to about 4% of real estate industry activity. What real estate is about even the development is usually about single buildings get inside the building. How does the building function. What is the planning and use and activity and experience inside buildings. Understanding the urban context is absolutely key. It's one of the, it's one of the frameworks within which real estate works, like the capital markets. But it is not, we do not teach real estate as an urban planning tool, per se. You've been in, in working for many, many years. You know, ideally you do an executive training, an executive program, because this program is really directed at folks who've been working two to five years. But that being said, we have we definitely have some students who've been out there working 10 years and so on. And they, they learn a lot. But the, the sometimes people who've been out there with a lot of experience think that they can wave out of classes. And that's not possible because what we really do is work as a cohort predominantly. And we also have new ways of looking at things, which is important to the program. The architecture background is great. As I say, you know, much more about real estate development and even adaptive reuse and repositioning buildings is now about the, the, the design and planning and functional layout within buildings. So we probably have about 35% of our students either have an architecture background, or are currently doing a dual degree like, like our class president Annika. And, and very much, I encourage people who don't have any finance background. This program is offered within a school of the build environment. So, I mean, I'm an architect Berkeley PhD in architecture, Harvard MBA, I teach finance to you initially, in a way that introduces you to fight to real estate finance as a way of understanding the concept of value that you utilize when you're designing as well. So it's not a whole foreign, foreign language. Many, many people do go the entrepreneurial route, and we find particularly in development, a lot of people go out and they come design developers or they develop the small projects they start small they build up. They do affordable housing projects for fees and so on. Entrepreneurship is encouraged we have courses in, you know, taking you through the entrepreneurial process. And, you know, and the business of real estate ahead.