Business-Related Courses and Programs

Programs at Northwestern that teach important business skills and knowledge include the following:

 

• Harvey Kapnick Business Institutions Program:  This interdisciplinary minor program focuses on how the complex organizations of businesses function to meet the demands of customers, workers, ownership, government, and technology. This program also offers the possibility of for-credit internships in Chicago and around the world.
• Chicago Field Studies:  CFS places students in a designed one-quarter internship program with a wide variety of top businesses and organizations in the Chicago area. Programs carry 1-4 credits and focus on a variety of subjects, such as social justice, law, business, and organizational behavior. CFS students intern up to 36 hours per week, depending on the program. Internship organizations are treated as sites for original research, which forms the cornerstone of seminar discussions and assignments.  This program is offered, by application, every quarter, including summers.
• Kellogg School of Management Certificate Programs for Undergraduates:  There are two Kellogg certificate programs, Financial Economics, and Managerial Analytics.  Each program involves four courses taught at a very high level by Kellogg School faculty. Students also have the opportunity to undertake a research project with a Kellogg faculty member. To be accepted for either program, students must have completed a set of seven prerequisite undergraduate-level courses including calculus, probability, statistics, and economics. Typically, students apply at the end of their sophomore year.  
• Medill Undergraduate Integrated Marketing Communications Certificate:  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. 
• Undergraduate Leadership Program:  This two-year program is open to sophomores and juniors and teaches the history, methods, and problems that go with various forms of leadership. Leadership is often held up as an abstract quality, but it is only by breaking it down to study it carefully, and by trying out various approaches in the face of challenges, that we can hope to understand and apply this elusive talent.

 

Beyond your major and what is offered through organized programs, you can choose classes that will teach you business skills and create an academic record that you can show to potential employers.  Here are some suggested classes that have direct applicability to the world of business.  This list is hardly exhaustive, and please note that some of these courses require prerequisites. 

Accounting and Finance

Business Institutions 260: Accounting and Business Finance
Business Institutions 390:  Theories of Financial Investing
Business Institutions 394:  Analyzing Financial Data
Economics 308: Money and Banking
Economics 309: Public Finance
Economics 360: Corporate Finance
Industrial Engineering (IEMS) 326: Economics for Engineers
Industrial Engineering (IEMS) 373: Financial Engineering I
Mathematics 366-1,2: Mathematical Models of Finance

Advertising

Journalism (IMC) 303: Advertising
Journalism (IMC) 304: Direct Marketing

Business Organizational Studies

Business Institutions 394:  Entrepreneurship
Sociology 215: Economics and Society
Sociology 302: Sociology of Organizations
Sociology 331: Markets, Hierarchies, and Democracies
Learning and Organizational Change (LOC) 211: Introduction to Organization Theory and Practice
Learning and Organizational Change (LOC) 306: Studies in Organizational Change
History 375-1,2: Technology: History, Society, and Economy
Economics 250: Business and Government
Industrial Engineering (IEMS) 325: Engineering Entrepreneurship

Communications and Negotiation

Communication Studies 205: Theories of Persuasion
Communication Studies 214: Theories of Argumentation
Communication Studies 363: Bargaining and Negotiating
Communication Studies 364: Collective Decision Making and Communication in Organizations

International Studies

Business Institutions 392:  Global Markets
Economics 322: History of the Global Economy
Economics 361: International Trade
Economics 362: International Finance
History 319: History of American Foreign Relations Language classes
Political Science 240: Introduction to International Relations
Political Science 340: Global Society
Political Science 342: International Organizations

Management

Business Institutions 394:  Evolving Third Sector: Lessons in Nonprofit Management
Economics 202: Introduction to Microeconomics
Economics 310-1: Intermediate Economics
Economics 339: Labor Economics
Economics 349: Industrial Economics
Industrial Engineering (IEMS) 324-1,2: Engineering Management

Marketing

Business Institutions 239: Marketing Management
Business Institutions 390:  Consumer Behavior
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) 300:  Consumer Insight Communications Research Methods
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) 301:  Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) 303:  Marketing Research