They may expect you will still take the offer even if they don't budge, in which case they gain nothing by offering you more. It may also be that they've run t

They may expect you will still take the offer even if they don't budge, in which case they gain nothing by offering you more. It may also be that they've run the numbers on whether, on average, they get a better deal overall (from all their new-grad offers) by remaining firm on all offers (even though they might expect to lose some high performers who get better offers elsewhere) vs being flexible on some top percentile of the offers. If you haven't heard of them ever negotiating a new-grad offer, then it may be that they don't. Of course it may be in their interest to claim not to negotiate, while also finding reasons to justify bending the rules under some circumstances. I'd be less inclined to believe they don't negotiate for later-career hires. > they give new grads the same package as they know we talk offers and they wanted to remain fair. I'll add a note that this is effectively "we believe new grads are more likely to exercise their right to engage in protected speech regarding compensation" in case that changes anything about how you view it. Edit: I don't know whether this makes you feel better or worse, but for what it's worth you're engaged in a high-stakes (for you) game (in the sense of game theory) with a counterparty who feels absolutely no emotion about this. Well, some of the individuals you're dealing with have feelings about it, but as an institution with 1000+ engineers, there is a script and a playbook and every single line you hear about "fair" or whatever is part of the institution's strategy and tactics. You might benefit from thinking of your own strategy and tactics in terms of leverage (do you have any?), rather than appeals to fairness.