In light of salaries like that, all the talk about learning opportunities and gaining valuable business experience can sound like just so much hot air.

Benvenutti, who worked in Washington last summer for Common Cause, a nonprofit citizen's lobbying organization, raised a skeptical eyebrow at the suggestion that one goes into business to learn about politics, or into the private sector to learn about the public.

"My understanding is that you need experience on Capitol Hill to get anywhere in D.C.," she says. "People

may move from working somewhere near the Hill to working in an agency and then to a nonprofit, but you need to be in D.C."

The students heading to Goldman, Sachs or McKinsey like to talk about the experience they will gain, the loans they have to repay, and the excitement of the job, but no one mentions the inflated salaries or the ease of the job search.

And it is an easy search, Wright-Swadel points out. "It's not always easy to get the job, because some of these firms are very prestigious," he says, "but it's easy to participate in the process."

Unlike students in other industries, who must interview in person for mere handfuls of positions offered at unpredictable times, prospective investment bankers and management consultants can sign up for interviews from the comfort of their dorm rooms, and need only to trek across campus to meet the recruiter.