Real estate education is taking off across the country. According to The College Board, a not-for-profit membership association of colleges, there are 307 universities in the United States that offer degrees in real estate. Rachel McMurdie, assistant editor of The Institutional Real Estate Letter, spoke with Stan Ross, chairman of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate about how higher education is affecting the industry.

We’re hearing more and more about real estate programs being offered by top universities around the country. How did real estate become such a popular higher degree?

Traditionally, the real estate industry was a mom-and-pop operation. It had been real easy, for example, for people to get into residential home building. You just buy a piece of land, go down to a savings and loan bank, get your project 100 percent financed, build a few homes, and sell. It wasn’t that complicated. That’s ev