Academic and Professional Residency Program

Real Experience with Global Employers 

The IMC program stresses practical experience alongside marketing communications theory. One practical component has been the individual professional summer residency program. Over the course of 12 years, the residency program has given IMC students the opportunity to work on marketing communications projects at companies such as AOL, Discover Financial Services, Dow Chemical, Draftfcb, Facebook, FedEx, Golin Harris, Google, International Truck and Engine, MarcUSA, Miller Brewing, Motorola, OfficeMax and US Cellular, to name a few.

IMC’s Residency Program now offers an alternative to the individual projects at a U.S. company: a Project Team Residency located at select companies in the U.S. or abroad. The student teams spend two to three weeks at the sponsor’s organization, concentrating their efforts on tackling a prearranged project challenge overseen by an IMC faculty member. The project assignments are high-profile—the company’s senior management will review the team’s results —and by focusing on one meaningful and cohesive project, students can be sure they will get the most out of their time on-site. The students return to Evanston to complete the project during the remainder of the summer.

In the 2008 Project Team Residency, two groups of students spent two weeks with Yum! Brands’ China offices in Shanghai (see video) visiting with brand professionals at the company’s KFC and Pizza Hut groups. Two other student groups visited the China offices of IPG agencies Draftfcb and McCann Erickson, getting an understanding of client challenges.

The Academic and Professional Residency is a three-unit, tuition-bearing course. Often sponsoring companies will provide funds to offset tuition costs, but for planning purposes, prospective students should assume they will be responsible for five quarters of full-time tuition.

View or download a list of all IMC Residency Sponsors - Past and Present

Hear from IMC students about their 2007 residencies.

Interested in Being a Sponsor?

IMC continues to work with companies to sponsor individual professional residencies, as well as group project residencies. If  you are a company that's eager to take advantage of the fresh insights and perspectives our students have to offer, please contact Tom Collinger, IMC Department Chair at t-collinger@northwestern.edu or Nancy Bennett, Associate Director of Career Services at n-bennett@northwestern.edu.

More information for prospective sponsors.