I agree; I found this to be true even 15 years ago during my college years. I went to a well-known regional university (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) and noticed t

I agree; I found this to be true even 15 years ago during my college years. I went to a well-known regional university (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) and noticed that the job outcomes out of college were different for those who did summer internships with major companies versus those who did not. Everyone I know who got an offer to work at a prestigious company fresh out of college interned at a prestigious company for at least a summer. Even in the computer science department, the students who got offers at Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other top companies all did internships at similar companies for at least one summer. The computer science students who did not intern at large companies either ended up at smaller, lesser-known companies or they pursued non-software engineering careers. Now, I know a few CS graduates who didn't start at large software companies but got hired there later in their careers. In general, though, being a Cal Poly student with a good GPA wasn't enough to get a job offer, especially at highly sought-after companies.