Rare Online Real Estate MBA Welcomed to Graduate Studies
Longwood University is now offering students the opportunity to obtain an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) in real estate.
The program is expected to begin enrolling students as early as the fall semester of 2014. Application into the program is considered to be on a rolling basis and 100% of students that are accepted are already employed when they enroll.
According to Dr. Scott Wentland, assistant professor of economics, this online MBA program is one of the only available programs in Virginia and one of very few online real estate programs recognized to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
Wentland said, “The programs come out of the faculty strengths at different schools around the state. The state of Virginia does not have a lot of business schools that have faculty that specialize in real estate.”
Abbey O’Connor, assistant dean for external relations and Longwood University’s MBA director, believes that “we [Longwood] have got the strength here [in the real estate].”
O’Connor said, “The market is starting to have demand here. If we’re looking to have something and hopefully help grow the MBA this way, it made sense to go with real estate.”
The process to create an MBA in real estate began in the beginning of 2013 when members of the College of Business and Economics began discussing what the program would need to be.
Wentland did research into what the industry is looking for, certifications the area requires and the courses other programs offer for the degree.
“We happen to have a number of professors … who are real experts in real estate,” O’Connor said.
Wentland is joined by Assistant Professor of Finance & Real Estate Dr. Xun Bian; Professor of Economics Dr. Ray Brastow; Chair of the Department of Accounting, Economics, Finance, & Real Estate and Professor of Finance and Real Estate Dr. Bennie Waller and Associate Professor of Accounting Dr. George Jackson, all from the College of Business and Economics.
They have all worked on numerous published research studies in the field of real estate and plan to use their knowledge “in the area in which [they] have strength,” Wentland said.
Several of the professors, including Wentland, Waller and Brastow have been interviewed and quoted in numerous media sources such as Web Talk Radio, The Wall Street Journal and the Richmond Times- Dispatch.
Wentland and Waller traveled to Richmond in the summer of 2013 where they spoke to a number of major commercial real estate organizations.
Before the trip, the program was being considered as a Master of Science.
Afterwards, O’Connor said, “It became clear to us that making this an MBA concentration was the way to go.”
She added, “It became really clear that what these people in industry were looking for was also something that would help their people develop the leadership skills, have a focus on ethics and integrity and have some more of the general business skills.”
Wentland added, “We wanted a way in which [the College of Business of Economics] can build on our strengths, and we have an MBA program where we think we can be very competitive not only in Virginia, but also nationally.
“Our idea is to attract both people from Virginia and people nationally who are interested in real estate,” he continued.
The newly-added MBA allows students to participate in the program part-time and finish it in an estimated two years.
Because of students’ ability to take the courses online, O’Connor feels “it gives them flexibility of time to fit school with their jobs … on their schedule.”
Tuition for graduate programs is the same for each program, but MBA students will pay an extra course fee for their program in the sum of a $210 per credit hour as well as an online fee with graduate tuition.
The 36 credit hour fee for an MBA at Longwood totals to an estimated $19,000 for in-state students.
Students will be able to receive several industry certifications once they graduate from the program, including a LEED Green Associate (GA) certification, an ARGUS DCF certification and also the chance to become a Certified Property Manager (CPM) and a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM), both of which are fast-track programs in which students complete the certification at an escalated pace.
CCIM does focus more on commercial real estate, while a CPM allows the certified member to be in charge of a higher number of larger apartment complexes or properties with more spaces as well as day-to-day operations.
LEED GA allows the certified student to focus on buildings that are going green or environmentally safe and the ARGUS DCF certification focuses on the software programs of the same name used mainly by commercial real estate and developers.
The software allows a detail analysis of real estate areas in which a certified student would be looking at.
Wentland hopes that students in the MBA program will be able to test into and be able to have one or more of these certifications on their resume shortly after graduation.
Recently, Longwood’s graduate programs were ranked by the U.S. News and World Report as 62nd out of 239 programs nationwide in their 2014 rankings of online programs.
The list was released to the public on Jan. 8, and only one other Virginia school was ranked above Longwood, being James Madison University.
Longwood University received a 95 out of a possible 100 points in regards to the qualifications for the professors in the MBA program. Student satisfaction and instructor responsiveness was rated high as well with 85 out of 100 points.
Looking to the future to creating an MBA in more areas, O’Connor said, “We certainly have a strength in the cyber-security area now … That certainly is an area that is getting more and more tension. It is a big area for us too.”
O’Connor is currently doing even more research into the ranking process of U.S. News and World Report in order to improve Longwood’s position even further.
