Updated February 8, 2008

What is the Undergraduate IMC Certificate Program?

The five-credit undergraduate IMC certificate program prepares students for entry- level marketing communications positions, including advertising; direct, database,  e-commerce and interactive marketing; public relations; and corporate communications .  The program focuses on effective marketing communications strategies, tactics and tools in an increasingly consumer-controlled environment.  The program will be offered beginning in the fall of 2008.

The IMC certificate program covers areas of marketing communication that are both traditional and digital, but predominantly the latter. Students who complete the certificate will develop skills for understanding and analyzing consumers in traditional markets and newly-forming communities and networks. They will learn about message creation and delivery through a wide variety of media channels, and they will demonstrate knowledge and application of basic qualitative and quantitative analytical skills, now necessities in this field.

Students must be accepted into the certificate program through an application process posted on the Medill Web site. Students may, however, take the two core classes – Consumer Insight and Analysis, and Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications – before applying. Admission to the certificate program is conditional upon the successful completion of three prerequisite courses – Econ 202: Introduction to Microeconomics; Econ 260: Accounting and Business Finance; and one course from a list of  options within Weinberg, McCormick and School of Communication (see complete list of course requirements in section called “IMC Certificate Requirements”).  Access to pre-requisites will be based on course availability each quarter.

All Northwestern students are eligible to apply to the certificate program, but qualified Medill BSJ students will receive priority for available spots. Two sections of each core class will be offered every quarter beginning in Fall 2008. All students admitted to the certificate program will have enrollment access to these IMC classes during pre-registration. All IMC certificate classes will be offered on a rotating basis as needed for students enrolled in the program. Admission to the program will be granted by Medill. 

Medill students who are enrolled in the certificate program are not eligible to begin taking the IMC certificate core classes until sophomore year, after they have completed Edit 301: Enterprise Reporting in Diverse Communities. One of the five IMC certificate classes can count toward the journalism electives required for the BSJ. The additional four IMC classes that fulfill the certificate program, however, must be counted as University-wide elective units, not courses in the major. 

For non-Medill students, sophomore status is required to take the two IMC core classes, and junior status is required to continue taking the IMC writing classes and electives.

All students accepted to the certificate program must earn the following:
- a minimum grade of “B” in each of the core classes, IMC 300 Consumer Insight and Analysis and IMC 301 Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications
- a minimum 2.7 grade point average in the following classes: IMC 300, IMC 301, Econ 202, Econ 260 and the last prerequisite chosen from the approved list.

To successfully complete the certificate program, students must earn a minimum grade of “B” in each IMC class.

Students may (pre)register for their first IMC elective class (IMC 303, 304, 307, 308, or 309) before they have been officially admitted to the certificate program, that is, during pre-registration and registration times of the quarter in which they are completing their second core class. Enrollment in the first elective class, however, will be permitted only after students have met the minimum grade requirements for admission to the program.