Rice University RE Investment and Development certificate short course?
I've seen on LinkedIn that Rice University offers and online certificate for Real Estate Investment and Development. It's an 8-week program and costs $2,800. I'm wondering what the benefits are. I'm assuming that it's a course for newbies (which I am). Would like to hear your experiences and how it has helped your career if at all.

https://online.rice.edu/courses/real-estate-investment-and-development-online-short-course
[{"id": "ilbwm3q", "text": "I feel like these university offered certificates and even degrees don\u2019t offer what you have to pay for. I\u2019ve had a coworker complete a masters from one of the more prominent universities and I don\u2019t feel like they gained anything more than I have from doing $10 real estate excel courses on udemy. If you\u2019re not in the industry already I can see how the name helps if you\u2019re looking to break in, though I can\u2019t comment how much a certificate would go relative to a masters program.\n\nThis option might not be available to you depending on your location, but before signing up I would look for job postings for entry level positions in your area. Reach out to them and see if they\u2019d entertain you working for free in an unpaid internship role. This might work better for smaller, more local investment or brokerage shops than the big name companies. That experience I think goes way further than a certificate imo. That\u2019s how I broke in, and if the company likes you they may just hire you full time. Showing that you\u2019re dedicated and willing to spend time outside of work to better your skills will make up for lack of concrete experience. Then do Justin Kivel\u2019ls courses on udemy for like $10 each. You can probably run through most if not all of them in the same amount of time you\u2019d spend on an 8 week program. \n\nI\u2019ll defer to anyone who has experience with these certificates. I\u2019m just skeptical of online educational programs if you\u2019re not going into a technical field like compsci, having done a masters program (not RE related).", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ilc5mmy", "text": "Unless your company is paying for it, I don't see a tremendous amount of benefit unless you don't have a background in real estate.  In looking at the Modules, if you don't know about real estate it might not be a bad thing.\n\nThat said, don't expect this certificate to be viewed as anywhere near a bachelors, masters, or experience, and if I saw that on a resume I wouldn't give it any weight.  \n\nMy friend got a similar certificate from Harvard, and he acts like he got a Masters from there, except that when he graduated they did not let them wear robes, because they did not graduate.  He still got value from his cohort, but keep that in mind.\n\nThe value however might be if it gives you access to the alumni connections, and if you put it on your LinkedIn, you could get some benefit through it.  You need to ask if that's the case or not.  If not, I would be skeptical.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ilcbtu8", "text": "Total scam. Rice basically sells its name and a few hours of its professors\u2019 time to a firm like 2U, which keeps a huge share of the revenue in exchange for using Rice\u2019s name to attract students. They win, you lose, since there\u2019s no accountability or skill development. \n\nLeast efficient: MS real estate programs and MBA programs with real estate concentrations. Very little skill development, and the networking isn\u2019t as advertised.\n\nBest bang for your buck: high quality modeling classes (eg Kivel\u2019s modeling classes on udemy) and training programs that teach skills and key concepts (eg cre analyst).", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]