Very lucrative internships … for the handful of students each summer that get them. Really not even worth discussing.
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Well, one of the early questions was literally “What’s the highest base starting salary…” so I thought it was relevant.
But even if you ignore all the finance companies, this is a pretty useful list to see who is outbidding the FAANGs in their quest for talent.
The rich get richer?
I.e. among businesses, is wealth becoming more concentrated in a small number of companies in one sector of the economy, and those elites have the money to hire the best talent to further entrench their elite positions and increase the gap between themselves and all others?
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Tech and finance are competing for the same talent. Finance pay is more deterministic on an annual basis (low salaries but high bonuses that year if you and/or the company do well). Tech may have similar base salaries as finance companies, but their compensation may include stock options, which can have widely different pay outcomes depending upon how the company is doing when the options vest.
Take for example Rivian which just went public today for $107B. It’s likely that most employees are paper millionaires or better. But it will be tough to tell what that stock will be worth when they can sell it.
I thought it was interesting to see how many are paying $2k-$3k/month for housing too.
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I was talking to a friend. His son is a physics/computational finance major at a T20 school. A certain hedge fund in Chicago offered him a summer internship. He hadn’t even applied. His salary made both our jaws drop.
He also mentioned that they get around 50k applications and only take 200 or so applicants. The fact that he didn’t apply but still was offered an internship is astounding. Truly rarefied air.
The kid was a rock star in HS and still is. The funny thing is he was turned down by several Ivies. Just a reminder how many rock star applicants apply to T10 schools and how many get turned down.
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I’m very late to this thread, but I will throw my D’s experience in.
In late Fall of her senior year, she was offered a very lucrative position at a manufacturer. Her starting salary was nearly six figures with a 25% annual bonus, tuition reimbursement, three weeks paid vacation in the first year, etc… It was incredible. I don’t want to say her major, but it was a common one and not related to engineering or math.
She was never in love with the idea of the job. She met up with a couple of her coworkers-to-be. Most of the new hires were from Ivy League colleges. One of them said “why would I take a job working 70 hours a week when I can make at least the same money working 40 hours a week?” That person was strictly there for the money.
My D found a different job that suited her much better, which paid about a third the salary of the other job. She had become disenchanted with the idea of the big bucks job and worried about “golden handcuffs.” No regrets.
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Your story resonates with me. Not every kid is going to be primarily motivated by the $$. There is a lot of interesting work that allows you to be self-supporting, but isn’t going to necessarily put you in the upper middle class. You don’t need to be a “top earner” to have job satisfaction or to make a good life for yourself.
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I think if you can find a job you really enjoy then it is definitely the right choice to take a less salary as you will be quite content to work in this job for a long time.
I liked my major just fine and the job was ok but certainly not something I could see myself doing forever as the stress levels, while fine for some, were too much for me. I was fortunate that the job paid very well and I was able to retire at a pretty young age.
Unfortunately I would think many college grads are not so lucky to have those two choices and instead wind up in jobs they do not really like that also do not pay a very high salary.
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It was probably a referral from a professor who works with the hedge fund.
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Not sure the extent to which “top earners & their measures” is relevant at top schools, particularly Yale. Many of my son’s classmate turned down very high paying options directly out of undergrad to pursue much, much lower paying “career path” jobs in preparation for future professional and academic track positions.
Examples:
Bio engineering degree turned down job at startup to work 2 years as a paramedic prior to MD. Now in top MD/Phd program
Math/Econ major, incredible summer internships, turned down quant hedge fund to work at a central bank for 2 years. Now in highest ranked econ Phd program.
Pol Sci major, turned down high paying consulting gig. Worked 2 years at a very low paying social service agency. Now has a full ride at a T3 law.
Don’t see any correlations between initial earnings and any real measure of the success or value of their undergrad experience.
Some of this does depend on spending habits. Students who grew up in high-spending “upper middle class” / “semi rich” (full pay at all colleges but still complain about college costs and lack of financial aid) households may have experienced a spending level that cannot be sustained on “ordinary pay level” jobs. Adapting their life to be satisfied at a lower spending level will open up a greater range of career directions in terms of what is an acceptable pay level.
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And there are are kids like our S. Raised in a fairly high spending family I was concerned on how he would manage his high starting salary. Interestingly (and happily) he is quite a bit more conservative when spending his money than when he is spending mine 
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Just for clarification… is this the same kid that bought McIntosh stereo equipment?
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Same one (and a 2021 BMW). He also has 6 months expenses held in cash, maxed out 401k, and brokerage account currently north of $100k and growing.
His compensation package was recently “adjusted” after 5 months. He’s living and thriving in Silicon Valley. How does that Timbuk 3 song go?
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Future’s so bright I gotta wear shades? 
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That is an interesting observation. My DD and her social circle are all fairly high earners in HCOL area. Most of them very conservative with spending. They all max their 401k and mega back door accounts. They all buy company stocks at discount to max amount allowed. Add high rent to equation and very modest entertainment/ food allowance and they don’t have any play money left
Actually I was mistaken, it’s $120K base plus bonus, stock and a $40K signing bonus.
“Some of this does depend on spending habits. Students who grew up in high-spending “upper middle class” / “semi rich” (full pay at all colleges but still complain about college costs and lack of financial aid) households may have experienced a spending level that cannot be sustained on “ordinary pay level” jobs. Adapting their life to be satisfied at a lower spending level will open up a greater range of career directions in terms of what is an acceptable pay level.”
My son is six months in at a new grad SWE position in a high cost of living area. I was initially worried he would overspend for some of the reasons listed above but as some of the other posters have recounted that hasn’t been the case. He has chosen to live with multiple roommates in a large house for about $800/mo instead renting an expensive apartment, drives a used Honda he inherited from his grandmother, maxes out his 401K and invests his extra money. This is a 22 year old that makes one of those eye-popping new grad compensation packages. His only real indulgence has been throwing himself a graduation party at a restaurant with his friends before leaving to start his new job. He said the bill was a pretty penny and the waiter was eyeballing him all night worried he couldn’t afford to pay the bill 
.
I think the main thing that prepped him for handling his money responsibly was having to work part time during college for his spending money. He was able to do this every semester without having work study. There are plenty of opportunities for kids that show initiative and aren’t excessively picky about how they start out. His first week in college (a top 85 school btw) he found a paid research position with a sociology professor after he overheard some dorm mates talking about a potential research position and rejecting it because it didn’t align with their (STEM) major. My son knocked on the professor’s door and got hired. This position allowed him to learn how to master spread sheets and basic statistic packages and have something solid to put on his resume as he competed for his first summer internship.
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