AFIRE Fellowship

• Program runs January to December/Nomination DL October 15th

• Students do not have to be in school the entire time, in fact, most of them are entering their first jobs while continuing to work with their mentors.

• Students must be nominated by their academic department.

• https://www.afire.org/membership/mentorship/
  
  

Annual Real Estate Challenge (NREC) at UT Austin

• Schools must be invited to participate/Registration Deadline is in mid-October

• Established in 2002, the National Real Estate Challenge is a premier case-based competition hosted each fall in Austin, Texas. Teams of graduate students from top business schools across the U.S. and Canada are invited to compete for $25,000 in cash prizes.

https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/centers-initiatives/real-estate-center/national-challenge/

The Case Competition

DL 12/31

The CASE Competition is an international, annual real estate competition that provides current graduate student teams an opportunity to compete, showcase their knowledge, and learn from each other through the analysis of a complex real world development site. The CASE is organized and hosted by The MIT Center for Real Estate.

Unlike other competitions, The CASE focuses on real estate acquisition and development underwriting at the asset level. The competition mimics the professional circumstances and assignments that students of real estate finance, construction, planning, and design will encounter in the formal development industry after graduation.

https://www.thecasecompetition.co/

Colvin Case Study

• DL 8/25 Intent to participate

• DL Submit Application 9/26

• The Colvin Case Study Challenge is a national intercollegiate real estate case study competition for full or part-time students enrolled in a college or a university real estate program (undergraduate or graduate or a university sanctioned real estate club/organization). The Challenge is to document a recent innovative real estate project within the team’s metropolitan region. Unlike many other case competitions, this is a post-development report and documentation of a recently completed project (or project phase). The Challenge is designed to hone professional skills and reveal the knowledge base and understanding of markets, project valuation, finance, urban design and sustainability, entitlement processes and operational issues.

https://arch.umd.edu/programs/real-estate-development/colvin-institute-real-estate-development/colvin-institute-competitions/colvin-case-study-challenge/colvin-case-study-challenge-2025

HUD Innovation in Affordable Housing

2025 Competition has been cancelled.
Competition Eligibility

• The competition is open to current graduate students working as a team, with a minimum of three and a maximum of five students.

• Each team must have students representing at least three disciplines that grant three different degrees, at least one of which must be from an architectural or design-related program, and one must be from a non-design-related discipline. For example, teams might comprise graduate students in architecture, planning, public policy, finance, business administration, and real estate development.

• Each team must work with one faculty advisor who may be from any of the team-represented disciplines and who serves only in an advisory capacity. The faculty advisor is not an active team participant.

• Students from different accredited educational institutions in the U.S. may combine to form a single team.

• Submissions may be the product of work in a design studio or related class.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/challenge/about.html

Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate Competition

• The Impact Investing in Commercial Real Estate Competition is hosted annually by the Miami Herbert Business School and sponsored by the School’s Real Estate Advisory Board.

• Impact investing refers to investments made in commercial real estate projects with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside an appropriate financial return. The case competition tasks teams with identifying such projects and presenting a plan to bring them to fruition.

https://www.herbert.miami.edu/graduate/find-and-compare-programs/real-estate-mba/impact-investing-competition.html

NAREIM Jeff Barclay Fellowship Program

• Student must be nominated by academic department/DL May 31st

• Each year, NAREIM celebrates the next generation of commercial real estate leaders through the NAREIM Jeff Barclay Fellows program.

• Named after the late Jeff Barclay, former NAREIM Chairman, Managing Director and Head of Acquisitions at Clarion Partners, and Head of Goldman Sachs' Real Estate Group, the NAREIM Jeff Barclay Fellows award is given to five outstanding graduate students with the goal to provide insights into the future of real estate investment management.

https://www.nareim.org/jeff-barclay-fellows-program

ULI Hines Competition

Teams self-register/Must have faculty advisor

Established in 2002, the National Real Estate Challenge is a premier case-based competition hosted each fall in Austin, Texas. Teams of graduate students from top business schools across the U.S. and Canada are invited to compete for $25,000 in cash prizes.

https://americas.uli.org/programs/awards-competitions/hines-student-design-competition/