Curriculum

The MRED program is a sequence with 7 required courses, 3 electives, and a thesis/project/capstone course. The 7 required courses cover development: law, finance, planning, design, construction, negotiation, and property management. (See the program descriptions above for the variations for the Certificate and Federal Track.) On a case-by-case basis, the Program Director may accept a substitute course for a required core course if justified by the student's prior educational background or work experience. No courses from prior or other degrees may be applied. The programs, other than the M.A. in Real Estate Development for Federal Managers, are not cohort programs with a required sequence of courses. However, RDEV 688A (Development Law, Process and Ethics) is a prerequisite to all other courses and must be taken in the first semester of attendance. Many related electives are available in such focused areas as sustainability, historic preservation, finance, affordable housing, planning, transportation, and economics. In addition, students may take relevant courses at the Smith School of Business, the Maryland School of Law in Baltimore, the Clark School of Engineering, or the Department of Landscape Architecture.

The location of the MRED program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation means you will have the opportunity to study with professors and students in highly related, but often overlooked parts of the development process-the broader context of planning and politics, design and construction, redevelopment and reuse of existing properties-as well as the more standard finance and investment courses.

We believe here at Maryland that this is not only the best the University and our development partners and sponsors have to offer you, but that it is also a superior preparation for entering or advancing in the development industry. Your professors will provide theoretical and academic materials as well as the practical application of the theory. Many of your professors will be practitioners active in the real estate arena.

In sum, your degree from Maryland is about preparing you to build for a sustainable future: that development projects you promote and participate in or undertake yourselves will aim for a rich quadruple bottom line: One that is not only economically viable, but also environmentally respectful, socially responsible and, not to be overlooked, one that is aesthetically pleasing.

Program Pedagogy: Collaborative, Comprehensive, Professional Education

We take an integrated, interdisciplinary and balanced approach to real estate development education. This means you take courses that address all aspects of the real estate business. Yes, real estate is a business, and finance is critical to making it go, but all the other principles and processes, and professionals from planning to property managers, are an integral part of successful development. None of those aspects are overlooked in Maryland's Master's degree in Real Estate Development.

You will take at least one course in every phase of development, plus two or more cross-cutting courses, such as development law, and at least one or more "skills" classes, such as negotiations. In addition you will have the opportunity to select several narrowly focused electives in areas that Maryland proposes to highlight such as, sustainable building, affordable housing, and accessible and senior housing. By the time you complete your capstone project you should be well equipped to understand and communicate with the array of professionals who contribute to a successful real estate project, from planners, politicians, policy makers, and community advocates, financiers, architects, appraisers, market analysts, engineers and contractors, property and asset managers to investment bankers.

Moreover, your professors and courses, will provide both a theoretical and practical knowledge base, with site visits, practice exercises, and visiting lecturers who are active in all facets of development. Textbooks, journal articles, and theses, are balanced with pro formas, policy memoranda, field studios. Each student is expected to become actively engaged in the local chapters of a real estate trade association, to stay up with current business reporting on real estate in the region, the nation and the world, and to participate in the life of the community they seek to shape going forward.