Certificate of Undergraduate Study
This certificate is designed for all majors who wish to have a certificate in retail management. The certificate helps prepare students for store and department management positions in major retail organizations, such as Kohl's and Target. In addition, the certificate in this area provides students with strong customer service and selling skills, which prepare students for understanding the challenges that they confront as retail managers. Overall, students who complete the retail management certificate have skills to successfully work with consumers and employees in mass merchandiser, specialty, grocery, apparel, and department store settings.
Students must maintain good academic standing within the university, achieve a minimum grade of C in each course applied toward the certificate, and complete all certificate course work within a period of four calendar years. Only courses taken at NIU may be applied toward the certificate. Courses used to satisfy the requirements for the certificate may be used toward an undergraduate degree in marketing and management. Courses used to satisfy the requirements for the certificate may have prerequisites that are not part of the certificate curriculum.
Students interested in the certificate should apply no later than the beginning of their final semester prior to graduation, but interested students are urged to apply as soon as they complete MGMT 335 and MKTG 295 (for business majors), or MGMT 333 (for non-business majors), for planning purposes. Applications are available in the Department of Management or Department of Marketing.