Is the Northwestern Master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications worth it? Alum shares the pros and cons

Deciding to pursue a degree in higher education is one that does not come lightly. Considering the nominal costs of tuition and the opportunity costs of unearned salary while you’re studying, it’s no wonder that many people say that graduate school is one of the greatest investments you can make on yourself.

I graduated from the Northwestern Master’s of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications program five years ago. I went into the program right after college , and was frankly unprepared in terms of doing my research on the program. But, I know that, unlike me, many people do extensive research before applying and attending. While there’s a lot of information and share out from recent graduates of the program and current students, there’s not many from alums that are a few years out of the program. And, that’s why I decided to write this article.

In this article, I’ll cover:

• 3 things I liked about the program
• 3 things I disliked about the program
• career outlooks 5 years after graduation — looking at my peers

I also talked about this in my video, if you’re interested you can hop over to my YouTube to check it out:

Things I really liked about the program

The opportunities

With all masters programs, you’re opening up a second door to your new future. With the Northwestern IMC program you’re really able to do that. That second door that you open with this program is wide and shows you a range of possibilities. This program offers 4 Sequences, which was streamlined from the 6 specialization tracks that was offered when I was pursuing the program in 2017. Because of the different classes you can take and the various tracks that you’re able to pursue, you’re able to explore different subspecialties in marketing, broadening your breadth in the various fields. If a student chooses a specific Sequence to focus in on, they’re able to focus on going into that field in depth.

T-shaped people

According to the Northwestern IMC website, the current sequences are:

• Consumer Insight and Analytics
• Brand Strategy
• Strategic Communications
• Media

Students explore both the breadth of fields and focusing on refining skills and knowledge in one specific Sequence. This shapes them to be the T-shaped people that companies highly value. People enter the program students, and graduate as highly sought-after T-shaped talent.

The people

At my time, there were around 130 students in my class. And, every single one of them was extremely smart, capable, and interesting. Everyone comes from vastly different backgrounds, so you’re able to gain various perspectives just by talking and interacting with your peers. This is something you don’t get often after working.

At companies, we hear employers talk about the desire to hire diverse. But the reality is that in most cases, they don’t. The IMC program is truly diverse. There might be a high index of people that are from the APAC region, but even so, their backgrounds are really different. The program is also big enough that you’re able to interact with different people throughout the classes that you take. From course work and in-class discussions, you’re able to learn from these peers—how they work, how they think, how they approach a problem. These are things that you’re not able to learn in textbooks and typical coursework.

The professors

This was one thing I found extremely valuable — the professors are industry people. Many either are still working a full-time job in the fields that they teach, or have recently transitioned into academia. Because of their close proximity to actual work in the industry, the projects that they design and the feedback they provide are extremely applicable. They’re similar to projects that you may encounter working, though at a lower complexity because of the limited time and effort students are able to devote to each class.

When I was applying to jobs after graduation, these projects helped add to my resume. I was able to show employers that I possessed these skills and had potential from these projects.

Throughout the class, the professors would also bring in their coworkers and colleagues to give us a deeper understanding of how our course is directly applicable to the ‘real world.’ They also judge our projects and provide feedback, similar to how they would approach it in their day jobs. We’re not only learning directly from the professors, but we’re also applying those theories into practice and receiving feedback to help us improve our craft.

Things I disliked about the program

Immersion Program

One of the things special about the IMC program is the Immersion Program. The Immersion Quarter takes place in your 3rd quarter in school from June through August. Essentially, it’s like an internship summer project. The school partners with different companies and design a project for the team to complete. Because it’s part of the curriculum, you’ll also have access to the faculty as support. You can consult with them throughout, and you’ll also have to present a ‘midterm’ and a ‘final’ to the team. During the project, you’re not only working with your ‘manager’ from the company you’re working at, you also have the faculty who you check in with.

Another thing, it’s a group consulting project. I was in a group of four and we were transplanted into Houston for an entire summer. We worked together, lived together, ate together. We were with each other for twenty-four hours for three months. I was lucky to be paired with one of my best friends, so we had no trouble living in the same room. I couldn’t imagine if I didn’t get along with them and had different living habits.

Now that I explained what the program is, I can get to what I disliked about it.

It’s a matching program. You don’t get a choice as to which project you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. Each student is asked to fill out a survey, and the school will use the survey answers to run through a algorithm. The survey includes quesions about current skillsets, desired skills from the project, among others. Then, the algorithm will automatically group the teams and assign them to the projects. Personally, I still like the project that I was on. I also really enjoyed my teammates. However, I did not like not having a say as to which project I was doing. Looking back, it also might not have been the most helpful to propel me into my next stage of my career even though it was a great experience.

Class Bidding System

You don’t necessarily get all the classes that you want. Similar to the Immersion Program, not everyone always gets what they want program because there’s too many people. It’s impossible to please everyone. So, there’s a bidding system for classes. For all the classes available during the quarter, each student will ‘bid’ on it with their 100 points. If the class takes 20 students, then the 20 students that bid the highest points will be able to take that class. It’s very strategic in terms of how you allocate your points. You might want to allocate more points to classes that are more popular, so you don’t lose out. I guess it is a learning that you don’t get everything you want in life. But, if we’re paying that much tuition, that was a small complaint that I had.

Not all classes are available in each quarter. So, you might miss out on a class and it might not be offered for the rest of your time in the program. There’s always opportunity to sit in on a class without taking it for credit. The professors usually let you do that, so that’s a work around it. You can still take the class, but it won’t count for credit.

Location and weather

The last thing is not specifically about the program, but more on the location of where the school is. Because Northwestern is located in the suburbs of Chicago, it’s extremely cold in the winters. The winters last a good 6 months. It starts getting to freezing level around November, and will warm up around April.

So during your time there, you’ll be spending many months in the cold, snowy winters of Evanston. You’ll realize that seasonal depression disorder is real. This isn’t something that can be avoided though, so just be sure to stock up on your Vitamin D.

Career paths to pursue?

Those are all the pros and cons to the program that I think were notable to highlight. I also wanted to mention about career outlooks. Schools often only talk about the employment rate after graduation, but not about what jobs people are doing. From my coffee chats with students, I know that’s a very important consideration. So, I took a look at my peers’ careers to see what everyone is up to 5 years graduation from the MS in Integrated Marketing Communications program.

As I previously mentioned, the program has a global mix of people and skillsets. The paths that everyone choose are just as (or even more) broad as the coursework that the program offers.

• Market research and consumer insights
• Entrepreneur
• Brand strategy
• Media strategy
• Content strategy
• Marketing strategy
• Digital strategy
• Growth strategy
• Account management and strategy
• Product management
• Product marketing
• Brand management
• Brand marketing
• Data science
• Management consulting
• Analytics
• Business intelligence
• Digital transformation
• Operations

Because we have people of various seniorities prior to entering the program, the level that people are at also varies. From my observation, many are at Senior levels, but there’s also some that are Directors, or even VPs.

I think the takeaway is that, there are many paths that the program can lead you down. It’s a great program for you to explore yourself in the broad field of marketing. There’s advantages and drawbacks to it, just as there is with anything in life. It’s just about whether this is the right program for you at this stage in your life.

If there’s any other thoughts of questions, please let me know. If you liked this, please consider giving me a clap or say hi to me on my YouTube! It means a lot, thanks :)