Northwestern's Quarter System and Summer Internships

<p>From what I see on CC, NU's quarter system means you get out in mid June and return to school in late September. Most summer internships begin in late May and end in early August. Is there any way around this? </p>

<p>I'm planning on going into engineering (although I may change my mind), and summer internships are undoubtedly important for engineering, so this kinda worries me.</p>

<p>My D, a McCormick 2009 grad is currently working for her summer internship company.</p>

<p>If a company is going to recruit at NU - and they do - they are well aware of the quarter system, and certainly capable of working within the system, in order to snag good recruits.</p>

<p>MyD said that it was more like a summer long party than working, as the company pulled out all the stops to put their best foot forward. It’s worth pointing out however, that she was a senior that summer, so they knew she and the other interns were going to be making a decision soon.</p>

<p>There are plenty of things to worry about, but I don’t think this is one of them.</p>

<p>The comment that most internships start in May is simply not true. If that were the case, look at my home state of California. Out of the UC’s, only 2 (Berkeley and Merced) are on the semester system. Would everyone else be out of the running then?</p>

<p>My daughter had an internship this past summer and the school was very accommodating in allowing her to arrange her finals during the last week of classes thereby shortening her term by close to two weeks and leaving in the beginning of June (maybe last week of May?) in order to take the internship. Dates can usually be worked out on one end or the other.</p>

<p>For employers that recruit at NU, this is not an issue. For structured summer programs in IB, this is also not an issue - there is a late start date for all of the schools on quarter systems - NU, Dartmouth, Stanford, UChicago, among others.</p>

<p>I think the only year this might be an issue is freshman year, when many students plan to work at home. You need to plan in advance to try to line up internships - interviewing over winter or spring breaks.</p>