[recursivefaults]

Here's my perspective.

If you weren't a recent grad, you'd be able to negotiate easily. In other words, your value has hit the wall of an inflexible policy. It happens.

Long term, this means that your compensation is anchored to this starting package while you remain at this company.

None of this makes things "Bad" but it might change how long it'll be before you doubt or regret accepting the offer.

If you take the offer decide how long you want to give it a fair chance. After that, you'll have more experience on your resume and you can interview again if you want.

If you don't take the offer, you will be able to negotiate with a different company, but you can't predict what offer they'll start with.