Admissions
Applications are submitted through the UC Berkeley Graduate Division. Please see their Admissions Requirements for the most up-to-date information about the application process. Below, we provide additional information specific to the Abbey MRED+D application.
To learn more about the Abbey MRED+D experience, we invite you to see our class profile for an overview of our current cohort, student profiles of our current MRED+D candidates, and our admissions FAQ for more information. We also invite you to request a meeting with MRED+D admissions or connect with an MRED+D student or alum.
Please sign up for our mailing list to stay in touch with the admissions team and learn more.
Events
Hybrid Abbey MRED+D Open House - November 5-November 7
Virtual Abbey MRED+D Application Tips Session - Wednesday, November 13 at 4:00 p.m.
Please join our mailing list to be informed about additional upcoming admissions events!
Application Deadlines
To be considered for our Summer 2025 start date, applications must be submitted no later than the posted deadlines by 8:59PM Pacific Time.
| Round | Application Submission Date | Decision Released | Deposit Due |
| One | November 15, 2024 | Mid-December | January 15, 2025 |
| Two | January 15, 2025 | Late-February | April 1, 2025 |
Abbey MRED+D Application Criteria + Tips
- Online Application
- GPA
- Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume
- Two Essays
- Two Letters of Recommendation
- Video Question
- English Language Proficiency Requirement
- Portfolio of Work (optional)
- GMAT or GRE Exam (optional)
The online application is designed so that you can enter and update your information at any time before you submit your application. Click here to access the online application. For the Intended Program of Study section, please select Summer 2025 as the Admit Term. When searching for our program, you will select Master of Real Estate Development + Design MRED+D from the list of options.
Please note that applicants may only apply to one degree program per admissions cycle.
Please also note that applicants with fewer than the typically-required two years of full-time post-graduate work experience must apply as Emerging Development Leaders (see “Two Essays” below). As no more than 10% of the cohort may comprise Emerging Development Leaders each year, admission through this program is competitive.
On the Supporting Materials page within the application, please note that you may disregard both the “Sampling of Relevant Written Work” prompt and the “Publications and Presentations” prompt.
Applicants from institutions on a 4.0 scale should provide two grade point averages (GPA): your cumulative undergraduate GPA as it appears on your transcript (no need to convert to a 4.0 scale), as well as your “Advanced GPA,” or your GPA after two years of undergraduate study. You may disregard the “GPA for courses in the major field of study” section, and we do not need to see your Advanced GPA calculations.
Students from institutions that do not grade on a 4.0 scale only need to fill out the “Other Scale GPA” section.
We are interested in learning about your work and experiential background. Please upload your most current resume or curriculum vitae, and be sure to highlight experiences and organizations that are real estate-related. The admissions committee prefers to receive chronological resumes of 1-2 pages in length.
Please note that you may disregard both the “Sampling of Relevant Written Work” prompt and the “Publications and Presentations” prompt on the Supporting Materials page.
Applicants are required to complete two essays. Although we do not have a required minimum or maximum word count, the suggested length of each is around 1 to 2 pages single spaced.
Statement of Purpose
Our essay question was created to provoke honest, thoughtful responses to help us get to know you. The admissions committee is interested in learning how your professional or other experiences and achievements equip you and motivate you to enroll in our program. At a minimum, the Statement of Purpose should indicate, with clarity and focus, your purpose for entering the Abbey MRED+D program and why this advances your professional and personal goals. We are especially interested in understanding both your experience in and your capacity to take full advantage of an intensive, fast-paced degree program.
Note: Emerging Development Leaders applicants (those with less than two years of full-time post-graduate work experience) must discuss why they feel ready for the program at their current level of experience in the Statement of Purpose.
Personal History Statement
Anything that can give the admissions committee a sense of you as a person belongs here. You can repeat information about your experiences found in your Statement of Purpose, but we encourage you to highlight any experiences that show your understanding of groups historically underrepresented, and your commitment to serving underrepresented segments of society with your Abbey MRED+D degree. You may wish to indicate how our program’s three pillars–design + urbanism, sustainability + resilience, and equity + inclusion–resonate for you and / or where your passion for the built environment and these pillars came from. This is also where you can give us any context that will help us better understand other aspects of your application, like extenuating circumstances that affected GPA or pauses in your work history.
The two required letters of recommendation provide the admissions committee with third party, qualitative accounts of your potential for success in our program. We require two letters of recommendation. However, you may submit up to three if you like. The online application will prompt you for three letters of recommendation. If you are only submitting the required two, just enter your own name into the third space; you may use mredd@berkeley.edu as the email for this dummy letter.
We strongly prefer that letters of recommendation come from a current direct supervisor, former direct supervisor, or other individuals with whom you have had significant professional interaction. Please select individuals who know you well and who will take the time to write thorough and thoughtful letters on your behalf. The title of those you select is not important. What does matter is how closely your letter writers have worked with you and whether they can attest to your value as an employee, your professional accomplishments, and your personal qualities. We have found the most helpful letters to be recent, relevant, and written specifically for this application. We discourage letters of recommendation from subordinates, family, or friends.
Emerging Development Leader applicants are permitted to utilize former professors or academic advisors if two professional references are not available.
When completing the online application, you will enter the email address of your recommender and click the appropriate box to have the recommender upload their letter. You are responsible for ensuring that both required recommendations are submitted prior to the application deadline.
You will be asked in the application to upload a video where in 2 minutes or less you tell us what drives your interests in real estate development + design and what you see yourself doing after you graduate from the MRED+D program. Please spend about one minute addressing each part of the question. Please do not read your essays – speak naturally! File may be no larger than 5GB, and the following file types are supported: .3g2, .3gp, .avi, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg, .mp4, .mxf, .webm, .wmv
Please see the Graduate Division’s website for information regarding demonstration of English proficiency, as this is a University requirement rather than a program-specific one. Please note that IELTS and TOEFL scores should be sent to their office electronically. The Abbey MRED+D program prefers to see TOEFL scores in the 100+ range and IELTS scores in the 7+ range.
While this is not a requirement, we encourage applicants to submit images of work and/or past projects with your application. Acceptable documents include presentations, pro formas, publications, and design portfolios, among others. Please keep this to 10-12 pages in length, and feel free to redact any confidential information.
GRE or GMAT scores are not required, but may help you demonstrate skills if they are otherwise not present in your application. They may be particularly useful for applicants applying to our Emerging Development Leaders program. If you wish to submit scores, they can be either current or expired. Please self-report your scores on the application and send the official results to UC Berkeley. For the GRE please use institutional code 4833. For GMAT scores please use institutional code N2V-M5-04.