A team of University of Aberdeen students will take on rivals from four continents in the prestigious international Real Estate competition hosted by Ivy League University, Cornell, New York.
The competition will feature a record field—with student teams from seventeen universities competing for a share of over $22,000 in prize money.
Along with Cambridge, Aberdeen are the only other UK university represented in a field including teams from Australia, Hong Kong, USA and Canada.
Now in its sixth year, the competition gives the teams just five days to prepare an analysis of an actual real estate transaction, which is not revealed until the time of the competition.
One of the students taking part, Amy Tyler, from Aberdeen, who is in the final year of her Management & Real Estate degree, says the team can’t wait to get started.
“This is a great opportunity to pit our wits against some of the smartest young minds from across the world working in the Real Estate sector. I can’t lie; the fact that it takes place in New York is also a nice bonus! More importantly though, this competition will put us in a real life situation, and we will be expected to produce something of industry standard, so it is a really good test of our abilities.
“Our team needs to give itself a company name, and we’ve decided to call ourselves MaitlandGroup, in honour of our late Rector Maitland Mackie who was such a fantastic champion for the student body during his time in the role.”
During the five days of the competition, the student teams prepare their analysis of the case and make their recommendations regarding the transaction. After a preliminary presentation round, five remaining finalist teams will present their case solution to the full panel of judges. These real estate experts will determine a winner based on the best overall analysis and presentation. The teams are judged on their investment recommendations, their approach to the problem, and their presentation skills, as well as their ability to answer and respond to questions posed by the judges.
Real Estate lecturer, Professor Norman Hutchison, who will be accompanying the team on the trip said: “Taking part in projects such as the Cornell International Real Estate Competition highlights the University’s commitment to student experience and those who take part will be gaining valuable real world experience which will prepare them well for life after University. This is a strong team who have earned the right to take part and I’m sure they’ll do the University proud.”
The five students taking part are Amy Tyler (4th year Management & Real Estate); Hannah Lloyd (4th year Management & Real Estate); Vitali Balaev (4th year Finance & Real Estate); Alina Kolesnikov (4th year Economics & Finance) and Maria Nilsson (4th year Economics & Finance).
This year's competing teams are: Brown University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cornell University, Indiana University, McGill University, New York University, Renmin University, University of Aberdeen, University of British Columbia (Sauder School of Business), University of Cambridge, University of Connecticut, University of Guelph, University of Michigan, University of Sydney, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin, and Villanova University.
The competition gets under way on Thursday October 30 until the following Tuesday. Follow the team’s progress on their live blog at http://maitlandgroup.blogspot.co.uk/.