It probably happens for a few schools/majors (especially in high cost of living areas where it won’t go as far) … but not as much as students would hope.
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You can look up companies on Levels.fyi. Mechanical Engineers (chosen since it isn’t CS or SE and my son is one) at many companies in SF for example have bases over $100k, plus RSUs, which are essentially salary too. You have to land the job though and pay the rent. They are very selective.
The interesting thing is that the cost of living is higher, but with RSUs, wages can grow exponentially, sometimes to mind blowing levels.
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MBB and IB pay six figures out of undergrad. My DD is starting at an MBB soon. Starting salary is $110k excluding relocation, signing bonus and year end bonus. Pay is the same across all cities and we are not in a HCOL.
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IB is at six figures now purely on base salary.
And IB pays considerably less than some hedge funds and prop trading firms.
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There is a website called levels.fyi which aggregates salaries based upon verified offer letters. It reports total first year comp at Google for a software engineer is about $189k.
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In tech, unlike probably in IB and Consulting, there is also negotiation for new grad pay – maybe not for base, but for signon and RSUs. So, for example, the Google number has a range.
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Also in the Finance world but not banking. Asset Mgmt (several functions - product, strategy, sales, research) can all exceed 100k including bonus first yr. How you get there will be role dependent. Account Mgmt will be lower base / higher bonus or commission. Research will be higher base / lower bonus.
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Our school district has a vocational campus that serves multiple high schools and trains students in manufacturing disciplines (machinists, CNC operators, programmers, mechtronics techs, etc.) rather than the building trades. We are in SE MI and grads are entering the auto industry. Students go half time to their regular HS and half time to the vocational campus and graduate in five years with a HS diploma and a certificate in their chosen trade.
At an information meeting the head of the vocational school was citing case studies where machinist grads were earning over $100,000 within a year of entering the workforce, and the placement rate was almost 100%. Since the program is funded by the school district it was tuition free to the students. Earning $100k at age 21 with no debt is a great way to start a career.
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What is a RSU?
Restricted Stock Unit
Restricted Stock Unit. Typically awarded at sign on and at yearly review periods. They typically vest over a period of time and are taxed at fair market price upon vesting. Employees typically sell at least enough of the vested RSUs to cover the tax.
All the different equity incentives can be quite confusing for new grads ( and parents alike) our S currently holds : ISOs, NSOs, and RSUs. I have experience with RSUs and NSOs, but when it came time to discuss all the tax implications is his ISOs ( including exposure to AMT) I was no help. He had to seek pro advice. A good problem to have.
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Fluency in certain languages can easily get >100K/yr right out of college.
What would the jobs be? Just curious.
It’s probably good to point out for any students reading that just because some CS (or whatever) grads make >100k to start doesn’t mean “all” one has to do is go to college majoring in CS. Those who make at the top end of average are very talented in their field, whether it’s CS or Engineering or IB or whatever. The CS talented kids I’ve seen have been talented in computers prior to going to college. The successful engineers were talented in math/physics prior to college too.
Not everyone shares those talents. I’ve seen engineers graduate, start the field, and wash out quickly. They weren’t starting at 100K either. I’ve seen plenty start a major with dollar signs and figure out by sophomore or junior year that they just weren’t as talented as their peers and wonder what they were going to do instead. It can be quite depressing.
Any student should be assessing their talents when figuring out what they want to do in life TBH. It could be trades. It could be college. It could be business. There are many options to a successful life and one’s best odds is correlated with their particular talents.
ETA: And definitely consider COL when contemplating a job. In some places, 100K doesn’t stretch far. In other places you’ll live quite well for less (or with that 100K). Work out a realistic budgeting considering housing+ costs at places.
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I agree 
. It might be easier to say that do, but I’ve always counseled my kids to find something the love and go all-in. It can be anything really, life’s a trade off, but if you are truly passionate about something it won’t be “work”
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They are particularly confusing, especially if the company is still private. For the benefit of others reading, an ISO is an incentive stock option. The employee is given the option to buy a specified number of shares, typically at a fraction of the share price. Technically exercising an ISO is not taxable until the shares are sold. The bargain element, the differential between strike and value at the time of exercising is exposed to alternative minimum tax (AMT) though, but can create an AMT credit in the future. My brain popped trying to figure that out.
Back to @JackH2021, as was mentioned, RSUs are restricted stock units, called such because they are granted in bulk, but vest over time, hence…restricted. As was also mentioned, they can be augmented, typically based on performance.
The important things to know are that 1) they represent a dollar value and not a number of shares 2) when they vest, they tax as ordinary income based on the value at the time they vest 3) they aren’t optional, they just happen. They are in effect just more income, no different than if those same dollars were paid, and then immediately invested in company stock.
What one does with them depends on their investment strategy and faith in the company. If they are sold immediately upon vesting, they are no different than that same amount of money as income, plus or minus a tiny fraction of capital gain or loss that happens in the interim between vesting and selling.
I also agree 100% with @Creekland and @Rivet2000. Positions like that fall to those who are typically well above the mean.
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For those kids with ISOs etc., I highly recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Your-Options-Equity-Compensation/dp/1938797094/
The author explains these things in a down to earth manner.
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Aren’t they priced upon the start date, not the vesting date? So they aren’t really like more income, because the value may have changed (hopefully upwards!) between the time of grant and the time of vesting. If the price goes up then you pay more tax (because you pay ordinary income tax on the grant and capital gains at a lower rate only on the subsequent increase) compared to the tax that would have been payable on a simple investment in stock on the original grant date. On the other hand, you might hope the RSUs will be worth more than their nominal value by the time they vest. That’s how employees get locked in at a company where the share price has increased enormously and they are waiting for a huge amount of RSUs to vest in years 3 and 4.
These acronyms are just some of the financial derivatives (i.e. their values are derived from something else). Understanding what they are is one thing. Figuring out how much they’re really worth is something else entirely. That’s one of the reasons why self-reported initial compensations in surveys are often inaccurate.