During the course of my four years at GC, I was able to explore all of the different aspects of the business department, eventually figuring out that my main interests lie within marketing. I will be starting my master’s program in marketing at the University of Reykjavik in the fall, and studying at GC has definitely helped me prepare well and set me up for success.
Staging - Marketing (V2)
At Goshen College, this is Marketing…
Understand how people decide and then build the brand, the message, and the campaign that reaches them at the moment it matters.
Marketing is often mistaken for advertising. Advertising is one output but the actual discipline is research, psychology, strategy, and measurement: figuring out who your customer is, what they’re really choosing between, where they lose interest, and what would change their mind. The creative work gets better when it’s built on the right foundation.
At Goshen you can study marketing as a 52-credit major or add it as a 19-credit minor. Either way you learn the same core: how customers move from never having heard of you to choosing you, and how to build something that reaches them. This approach builds creative and analytical skills through real campaigns with local businesses, nonprofits, and student-led enterprises. You learn to craft brand stories and use data-driven strategy to connect people and ideas with purpose.
Why Study Marketing at Goshen College?
The major is grounded in behavioral science. Most undergraduate marketing programs teach you to describe what customers do. Here you study why: how people actually make choices under uncertainty, what they overweight, what makes them hesitate and what that means for the campaign you’re building. That’s a sharper tool than intuition, and it’s the difference between a marketer who guesses and one who knows where to look.
What sets it apart
- Real clients, from the start. Campaigns with local businesses, nonprofits, and student-run ventures — work that goes out into the world while you’re still in school.
- The science under the story. The behavioral science of decision-making is built into the major, not offered as an afterthought.
- Persuasion with a conscience. Marketing is persuasion with a budget. Goshen takes that seriously, and you’ll be asked what you owe the person on the other end of the campaign — what’s honest, what’s manipulative, and where the line falls.
- Experience is required, not optional. Majors complete a hands-on experience course through an internship, a student-run business like the Java Junction coffee bar, or applied work inside a real organization leading towards their final capstone project.
- A head start on the MBA. Qualifying students can begin taking Goshen MBA courses while still undergraduates. Ask your advisor about the credit and GPA thresholds.
Marketing skills travel. Goshen graduates work in healthcare and higher education, nonprofits and tech startups, in the U.S. and abroad. Whatever you end up marketing, you’ll leave knowing how people — decide and what it means to reach them honestly.
Major or Minor: Which One Fits You?
Both teach you to move ideas. The major is a full bachelor’s degree for students who want marketing to be the career. The minor is a shorter credential you add to another major, for students who want marketing to make that career possible.
The Marketing Major: 52 credits, B.A.
- For students who want marketing to be the job title.
- The full arc: how customers decide, how brands are built, how campaigns are measured, how to sell, and how the business around the marketing actually works.
- Includes a required hands-on experience course, dedicated career planning, and a senior capstone where you put the whole degree to work.
- Grounded in ethics and in the behavioral science of how people actually make choices.
- You can begin taking Goshen MBA courses while still an undergraduate once you meet the credit and GPA thresholds.
One planning note: you can’t double major in marketing and business, because the two overlap too heavily. Marketing majors often add a complementary minor instead.
The Marketing Minor: 19 credits
- For students who want marketing to strengthen a different job title.
- The core of it: how customers decide and how campaigns get built and run, plus your choice of deeper work in selling, brand and design, communication, or the psychology of decision-making.
- Built to be added to any major, usually without adding time to your degree.
- Pairs especially well with business, communication, graphic design, public health, and the arts.
- Ask your academic advisor to map it against your current plan — it usually takes one conversation.
One planning note: you’ll need to meet the minimum grade standard in the courses that count toward the minor.
Not sure yet? Browse our program requirements or request further information.
Brynja Hjartardottir '25
Travel Consultant at Icelandair
What You’ll Learn to Do
By the time you finish, you’ll be able to holistically look at a business problem, work out what the customer is really deciding, and build and defend a plan to reach them.
Every marketing student, major or minor, learns to understand how businesses actually function and how the pieces connect; to spot an opportunity, analyze the information around it, and apply a framework to decide what to do; and to communicate all of that clearly to the people whose agreement you need.
Majors go further. You’ll learn to name how your own values and ethical commitments shape a business decision. You’ll build the skills to influence and motivate a group toward a result. You’ll learn to work productively with people who hold different roles and different stakes in the outcome. And you’ll prepare deliberately for a marketing career, with career planning built into the degree rather than left to chance.
Common Questions About the Marketing Major & Minor
No. The two share too many required courses for the college to count them as separate majors. If you want breadth beyond marketing, the better route is a complementary minor chosen around your career goals — talk it through with your academic advisor.
Graduates work as marketing coordinators, brand strategists, digital marketing specialists, content managers, sales executives, event planners, product managers, and entrepreneurs. Marketing skills carry across fields, and Goshen graduates work in industries from healthcare to higher education, nonprofit leadership to tech startups, in the U.S. and abroad.
Any major, and especially business, communication, public health, and graphic design. Anywhere you’ll need to explain something to an audience and get them to act — which is most fields — the minor takes the rest of your degree and equips you to market your passions.
Yes, and for majors it’s required rather than optional. You’ll apply classroom work through projects with community partners and on-campus ventures like the student-run Java Junction coffee bar, and majors complete a hands-on experience course — an internship or applied work inside a real organization — before finishing with a senior capstone.
Yes. Qualifying students can begin taking courses in Goshen College’s MBA program while still completing their undergraduate degree, once they meet the credit-hour and GPA thresholds. Ask your academic advisor about the current requirements and how to plan for it.
Scholarships make up a large portion of Goshen financial aid packages, which average almost $26,000 per student, not counting work-study or loans. Enrolled business students may also qualify for endowed awards including the Sauder Scholarship and the Gorsline Scholarship. Run the net price calculator to see your own number, then talk it through with a real person in the financial aid office.
Hands-On Learning Opportunities
Real-world experience is built into the program. You apply what you learn through projects with community partners and on-campus ventures like the Java Junction coffee shop and student-led marketing campaigns.
Internships with local businesses and organizations let you build your resume before you graduate, so you leave with work you can point to, not just a transcript. Students have previously interned at Everence Financial, LaCasa, Lippert, Genesis Products, Goshen Chamber of Commerce and more.
Alysha Liljeqvist
Associate Professor of Business
Michelle Horning
Professor of Accounting
Program Director
Department ChairJerrell Richer
Professor of Economics
Carl Kreider Chair and Co-Director of Global EngagementAndrew Hartzler
Professor of Accounting
Eyob Zeleke
Assistant Professor of Information Technology
Jason Harrison
Assistant Professor of Business
Jorge Montenegro Martinez
Assistant Professor of Business
Patrick Farran
Associate Professor of Business
