I think a lot are also opting for startups. I think the number of million dollar value start ups is up quite a bit right now.

That h1b prisoner comment is starrrrrk (and true to my experience as well).

Amazon and MS were never really in the same league as Google and Apple.

I don't really believe NVIDIA pays near as well as the latter two companies either (per level, not accounting stock appreciation), though obviously if you joined in 2022 you're doing fantastic. But if you joined two years ago? You'd make less than you would have made at Apple or Google.

OpenAI and Anthropic are obviously standout companies that are top tier bar none, but they also hire a lot less, and even more sparringly from new grads.

So I don't really believe the premise that 'middling grads' just go get jobs at Apple like it's a consolation prize, making 220k a year starting or whatever it is.