Wondering what Northwestern's IMC program is all about? Follow Gwynne Rowe's (IMC '11) posts throughout the coming year as she provides a student's perspective.
By Gwynne Rowe
Whoever said grad school would be easy? I’m not sure if anyone ever said that, but if they had, they certainly weren’t a master’s student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern. My first quarter at IMC has been the most academically challenging and rewarding program that I’ve ever taken on. During orientation and pre-orientation, current students warned of the rigors of the IMC program. However, I took their advice somewhat lightly, having enjoyed good grades and the other perks of undergrad maybe a little bit too much!
As the first week – I take that back – as the first days of classes passed and I suddenly had enough homework and reading to keep me busy from dawn until dusk, I realized I should have taken those now-5th quarter students’ advice more seriously. While everyone was worried about Statistics before classes started, we were now also faced with Finance. Finance! As someone who had enjoyed a college career virtually math-free and three years in the work force successfully dodging numbers (for the most part), I was suddenly confronted with Finance. Why hadn’t anybody warned me about that?
The workload wasn’t the only thing that was different from undergrad. I was now surrounded by extremely bright peers from many cultural, educational and career backgrounds. Instead of sitting passively back in class, my classmates engaged with each other and the professors. And—the best part of IMC—everything that I was reading, discussing, and learning was extremely valuable and interesting to me. Sometime after the panic of midterms had passed, and the shock of walking out into fresh air after leaving the library at 11:30 at night wore off, I realized how much I had already learned and how the concepts from each class were coming together to form the base of my IMC education. Several projects, papers and presentations later—it was finals week. Like midterms, I was still anxious and panicked at the prospect of final exams. However, unlike midterms, I felt better prepared and even slightly confident!
Now that I’m on winter break, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed doing nothing so much. There were times when I doubted myself and didn’t know if I would make it this far, but with the support of my fellow IMC’ers and the professors who told us again and again not to panic, I made it. Now I’m ready for next quarter. I have a game plan, and I know what to expect – I hope!
Gwynne Rowe is a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University’s Medill School and can be reached at gwynnerowe2010@u.northwestern.edu
0 comments:
Post a Comment