[nroman]

The top tech companies (Google, Facebook, MS, etc.) see internships as the best way to recruit the top talent as they graduate from college. For this reason they will often pay engineering interns anywhere from $5000-$7000 a month.

Internships are also a much better way to screen a potential full-time employee. The company gets 3 months to interview the candidate in a real work environment, instead of a few hours in front of a white board.