Kellogg recruiting policies and guidelines

The CMC’s priority is to support the academic mission of the school. Our students' first priority is class and academic requirements. We expect employers to support Kellogg’s academic mission by providing reasonable alternatives for engagements when there is a class or assignment conflict.

2025-2026

Internships

• All internship offers must remain open until Feb. 13, 2026 or two weeks from the date of the written offer, whichever is later. (Note: Changes in bonus incentives are acceptable.)

Full-time employment

• Full-time offers, including return offers to summer interns, must be held open for at least two weeks from the date of the written offer. (Note: Changes in bonus incentives are acceptable.)

2024-2025

Internships

• An internship offer must remain open and fundamentally unchanged until Feb. 14, 2025 or one week, whichever is later.* Students may accept an offer before Feb. 14, 2025 if they so desire; however, they are not obligated to respond sooner.

Full-Time employment

• If the full-time offer is from the student’s summer intern employer, the offer must remain open and fundamentally unchanged until November 1, 2024, or one week, whichever is later.* Students may accept an offer before November 1, 2024 if they so desire; however, they cannot be obligated to respond sooner.
• For all other situations, the offer must remain open and fundamentally unchanged until December 6, 2024, or one week, whichever is later.* Students may accept an offer before December 6, 2024 if they so desire; however, they cannot be obligated to respond sooner.

*Change in bonus incentives is acceptable.

Organizations sometimes establish an earlier decision date than outlined above and do not accommodate a later decision date when asked by a Kellogg student. In these cases the Kellogg CMC will not consider an offer as reneged if the student accepts and then declines the offer in the time window outlined above.

An internship offer made prior to Aug. 14, 2025 to an incoming (non-matriculated) first year Kellogg student must remain open and fundamentally unchanged until Nov. 21, 2025*. The purpose of this is to allow students time to acclimate to the MBA recruiting environment before committing to an offer.

Please note: The CMC encourages employers to be flexible about extending deadlines so that students can make a well-considered decision on offers. We have worked with organizations who establish earlier decision dates than outlined in our guidelines and do not accommodate a later decision date when asked by a Kellogg student. In these cases, the CMC will not consider an offer as reneged if the student accepts and then declines the offer in the time window outlined below.

*Changes in bonus incentives are acceptable.

2025-2026

Summer internships

• First year students will be available to begin their internships on or after June 9, 2026. Classes and final exams are scheduled in accordance with the Kellogg Academic Calendar.

Full-time employment

• Second year students will be available to begin work on or after June 16, 2026. Classes, final exams and convocation are scheduled in accordance with the Academic Calendar.
• Students in the Evening & Weekend or Executive MBA Programs may be available to start work prior to graduation.

In an effort to help ensure that all students are evaluated equally, please work with our office to provide the same interview experience for all candidates on your schedule.

• When scheduling second-round interviews, employers must offer at least two date options so that students may plan around their academic schedule.
• Employers should work around any issues with internet firewalls or certain software/websites/programs not being accessible to certain candidates or interviewers, and as needed, provide alternate options.

When planning interview-related events, please consider students’ academic calendars and recruiting commitments. Students are routinely asked to balance multiple recruiting events and company touch points in the evenings leading up to an interview date. Planning an event with a flexible start and end time will allow students to manage their academic and recruiting schedules.

Violations of Kellogg’s recruiting policies will be evaluated on a case by case basis. Kellogg considers the following to be infractions of our recruiting policies:

• An offer (verbal or written) which is rescinded or withdrawn prior to the student accepting or declining
• An offer decision deadline which is not in compliance with Kellogg’s decision deadline dates (see above). This also prohibits the use of “exploding offers”
• A delayed start date (date pushed back from the original agreed upon date)
• A significant change to an agreed upon offer, such as salary, location or duration of an internship
• Internship recruiting events held prior to the start of the on-campus recruiting period

Kellogg encourages students to report any infractions to recruiting policies. Kellogg CMC staff will then investigate the matter and communicate directly with the employer. In the case that a matter is not resolved, any of the following corrective actions may be taken: 

• Communication from the school to the senior management of the company informing them of the policy infraction
• Restriction of the company’s access to students which may include: panel/industry discussions, corporate presentations, club events, or other recruiting activities
• Exclusion of the company from on-campus recruiting activities
• Inclusion on student-facing Employer Policy Noncompliance list

Just as we expect our employers to adhere to stated policies, we have also established a Recruiting Code of Conduct for our students. If you feel students are behaving in an unprofessional manner, please reach out to your contact on our team.

On-campus recruiting is available for Full-Time MBA students or CMC-eligible Evening & Weekend MBA students. Student populations that are not eligible for our services, and thus cannot interview using our systems or participate in CMC scheduled events, include:

• Non-CMC eligible Kellogg students (Evening & Weekend, Executive MBA, PhD)
• Northwestern undergraduates
• Students in other Northwestern graduate programs
• Students from other universities
• Kellogg alumni

However, these non-eligible candidates may reach out to you, and you are free to interview them, outside of the Kellogg-supported recruitment process.

Please contact the CMC if you would like to discuss the recruiting channels available for the broader Kellogg and Northwestern University student population.

Read Northwestern's Anti-Discrimination Statement and employer expectations.

Disclosing or not disclosing one's grades is completely at the discretion of each student while pursuing a degree at Kellogg, including during the recruiting process. Kellogg adheres to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits an educational institution from disclosing grades to third parties without the written or explicit consent of the student.