Complete the registration form at uli.org/hines2025 by November 20, 2024 to register a team. Create a free ULI account in order to register. Read the instructions below and view a Sample Registration Form.

Please note that the deadline to register is November 20, however we ask that you start and complete your registration as early as possible! The application includes requesting various approvals depending on your status in school, as well as approval from your department or program head.

ULI invites teams from accredited educational institutions worldwide to participate in the 2024 competition. Students in Europe can also compete in the ULI Hines Student Competition – Europe. Students in Asia can also compete in the ULI Hines Student Competition – Asia Pacific.

For details about team composition requirements, visit the How to Form a Team section on this page.

Application Overview

Teams that wish to compete must submit the following information via an online application:

• Name and contact information for all five team members;
• Degree program information for all five team members;
• A one-page résumé for each of the five team members;
• Names and contact information for the team’s faculty advisors (at least one required; if you have two, please share contact information for both of them, and we recommend they come from different disciplines);
• Names and contact information for the team’s professional advisors;
• Signature of the department head of the sponsoring school; and
• Verification forms for each team member who is a part-time graduate student or a fifth-year eligible undergraduate student, such as BArch or BLA student.

Application Instructions

Review the eligibility requirements below, form your team, and complete the online application at http://www.uli.org/hines2025. We will discard any applications submitted by e-mail.

DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST WEEK TO APPLY! The submission form requires a lot of information and asks you to submit faculty references so that ULI can determine the eligibility of your team. You will receive quicker responses to your questions and have an easier time if you start the application process early. You can save the form and come back to it.

Eligibility

Ineligible to compete are members of the jury; the competition faculty and professional advisers; all officials, current employees, and recent former employees of ULI; the employees, students, and immediate family members of any of these parties; and those whom ULI deems to present a conflict of interest; and all students from the finalist teams in the 2023 and 2024 competitions.

ULI reserves the right to disqualify teams, limit the number of teams that can participate in the competition, and select teams for participation based on geographic diversity, team statements, team makeup, university diversity, or other criteria listed in the competition guidelines.

Team Verification

The director of a school, college, department, or degree program from at least the Sponsoring University, must verify the team’s eligibility to participate. This verification is in addition to the verification that ULI requires for each fourth year undergraduate or part-time graduate student. If your team has students from more than one university, the verifier from the Sponsoring University can verify the eligibility of all team members. If they do not want to verify students at other universities, you can request verification from additional directors.

How to Form a Team

There is no limit to how many teams may be formed at a given college or university. Intercollegiate teams and teams with members in different states and countries are welcome and have been successful in the competition.

Team Composition

• Each team must be composed of five students. This program is primarily open to graduate students, however undergraduates in their fourth year, or in their fifth year of a five-year pre-professional program, such as a BLA or BArch, also may compete. Currently, we do not have the capacity to allow more undergraduates to compete. Please do not email us to ask for an exception to this requirement.
• The team members must be pursuing degrees that represent a minimum of two disciplines that grant two different degrees, one of which must be a design
  discipline and one of which must be a non-design discipline.
  • Examples of design disciplines include—but are not limited to— architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design.
  • Examples of non-design disciplines include—but are not limited to— business, finance, real estate, and urban planning.
• ULI does not consider team members’ past/undergraduate degrees when determining whether the team meets the interdisciplinary requirements, unless the student is currently an eligible undergraduate student.
• We strongly recommend that your team members be pursuing degrees that represent a minimum of two disciplines, one of which is a design discipline and one of which is a non-design discipline. If you are pursuing a degree that is multidisciplinary in nature, we still encourage you to work with students who are not pursing the same degree. The point and purpose of this competition is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding. You will learn more and get more out of the competition if you work with students who are pursuing other degrees and are focused on other disciplines.
• A well rounded team will need two or more members with strong design and graphic production skills, and one member with real estate, finance, and/or business skills who can create the pro forma. It may also be beneficial to include someone with strong writing skills, to ensure that any narrative text is compelling and clear, and someone with project management skills, to help identify who will be responsible for various tasks and to keep the work on schedule. Market analysis skills and an understanding of urban planning also will be helpful.
• Each student team member must be a currently enrolled full-time as a student in a degree-granting program.
  • Exception: Part-time graduate students may participate in the competition provided that they have completed one semester by the start of the
    competition, and they will be a part-time student during the entire competition period of January 6 to April 30, 2025. During team registration, they must submit to ULI a verification of their status from a director of their program. They can request this verification via the online registration form.
• Students from different educational institutions may form a single team, as long as all other individual and team requirements are satisfied. For example, if your university does not offer a landscape architecture program and you would like to have that discipline represented in your team, you can work with another university to achieve the mix you seek.
• Students enrolled in dual-degree programs must designate which degree program they represent on the team for the purposes of the team composition requirements. For example, a student who is enrolled in a joint MRED/MArch program must state which discipline they are representing on the team.
• The only exceptions to these formulas for team formation are at universities where the graduate degree itself is considered a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary degree. This is very rare, but if you think this might apply to your team, please e-mail [email protected] before the application deadline.
• Once the team has registered, it must remain intact throughout the entire process. We allow you to replace a student team members only in extraordinary circumstances and with written approval from ULI. If a member of a registered team decides not to continue, the team must replace the departing member and must still satisfy the requirements for team composition.
• Team members—students, faculty, outside professionals—are not required to be members of ULI.