This works if a student wants to start out as an entrepreneur. But if they actually want to start their career with a high paying engineering job at a big tech

This works if a student wants to start out as an entrepreneur. But if they actually want to start their career with a high paying engineering job at a big tech company and they don't have any inside connections, their school had better be a recruiting target for internships and new grad positions. Plenty of affordable public universities are in this category, but Google and Facebook don't show up at the community college career fairs. Of course there's always a career path for people with a record of making impressive things, but if you're a CS major in the right schools you can get into the big-name tech companies just for having potential.