The MIT Center for Real Estate welcomes its incoming Class of 2008 –  40 students (drawn from a pool of 110 applicants), a remarkably international mix admitted to MIT/CRE's flagship program, the Master of Science in Real Estate Development (MSRED).  This class features a striking increase in international students, reflecting the Center's increased global presence and focus on international real estate. Of the 40 new class members, 15 (38%) come from overseas – an increase of 14% over last year's 24% – in a trend that the Center has established over several years. Our new students hail from China, Columbia, England, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Class members bring substantial work experience in the real estate industry, from analysis for McDonalds of India, to the development of water supply infrastructure for the government of Yemen, to bond trading for Charles Schwab, to the development of a lodging business from a barren cattle pasture in Colorado. Industry sectors are broadly represented, with student backgrounds in design and architecture, acquisitions, construction, project management, development, finance, restructuring, and investment.
Students have come to MIT/CRE to focus on work that includes:

• Captaining commercial fishing vessels in Bristol Bay Alaska to catch Sockeye (“Red”) Salmon for the world market
• Volunteering to help people with developmental and cognitive disabilities
• Teaching English to adults in Rome, Italy
• Snowboarding, lacrosse, and soccer
• Monopoly
• Television's "The Simpsons"
• Preparing to run the Boston Marathon while at MIT
• Managing the national media tour for Martin Scorsese’s The Blues, a seven-part film series produced for PBS by WGBH Boston