Who Is IMC?

The first thing that struck me about Northwestern's IMC program when I arrived on campus was the tremendous amount of diversity among the participants. We have students from all over the world, each bringing a unique perspective on marketing and consumer insight. Most of us have work experience in a multitude of industries, but some came to Evanston directly from their undergraduate program. And our prior education varies to a great degree - I have a Finance background, but others haven't dealt with math and statistics for years!

We all came here for different reasons, but with the same goal - to learn how to market in the 21st century.

The concept of a "melting pot" is one that most of us have heard about, describing the mix of cultures in American society. I believe it accurately describes the IMC population as well. I got my bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, a large school with a substantial number of international students and faculty. But I can honestly say that I have had more engaging conversations with people unlike myself in the past 2 months than I did in 4 years in Madison.

Why? Here are a few reasons:

1. Class size/structure - The 2008 Medill IMC class is roughly 75-80 students, split into 2 sections. Class participation is vital for success (we get graded on it!) so it pays to be speak up, talk about your life, and even challenge the professors occasionally. It's a very different environment than the one I was used to: huge lecture halls and a lot of listening.

2. Personality - one characterization I can make about my peers is that everyone is really excited to learn from each other. It's pretty common for someone to send an email with an interesting article that relates to concepts from class. In many ways, we are teaching each other IMC. I'm sure that this is a quality that the admissions board attempts to identify in prospective candidates during their interviews.

3. Social networking - IMC students from the 2007 class are focusing on graduation in December, but they did a fantastic job acclimating us to the program during orientation. Medill sponsors several events that allow us to interact with each other (happy hours, lunch with the Dean, etc.) and to interact with industry leaders (Professional Speakers Series). In the same respect, most of us are new to Chicago, and have relied on each other to explore the city.

4. Mutual interest in cultures - American students took the initiative to teach their foreign counterparts about our brand of football at the NU-Michigan game. We also introduced some of them to Halloween and Thanksgiving. Conversely, the Asian students allowed us the privilege of helping them celebrate the Moon Festival and there have been plenty of potluck dinners exposing us to traditional dishes from their homelands.

--Paul