Bob Wulff, the director of the George Mason U graduate real estate program (right, whom we snapped yesterday with GMU adjunct Mark Cummings of MEC Realty and Mr. Mason himself) knows times are competitive for masters real estate students; that's why he's pushing a real-world curriculum for the program's 50-some students. Bob, who joined GMU as director of the program in January after success with BF Saul, says he's preparing his students for life after school by immersing them in real developments.

That includes plugging tons of real-world NoVa case studies in to classwork, since the area is "the most dynamic commercial real estate market in the region," with nearly twice as much investment dollars spent than in Maryland, Bob says. And Mark says that over the summer, students will visit some of the area's game-changing developments (like CityCenter, the Mosaic district, and a large planned-unit development in Loudoun County) to see how the fruits of their studies can be applied. The students (ranging in age from late 20s to 40s) will also hear from CRE executives from Pulte Homes, CoStar and Marcus & Millichap, among others, for more direct insight.