[kerkeslager]

> So if lower-income students can't get internships, it's probably because it's hard for them to get into a decent CS program in the first place.

Sure. But every big tech company has relationships with universities, and has billions of dollars to invest, and would easily recover in the form of talent if they invested in education, even before the undergraduate level. I've worked at small consulting firms that were able to provide a few scholarships on much smaller budgets.

You're right to hold academia responsible as well, but a big reason that systemic problems like this aren't fixed is that the responsibility for fixing them is spread out across a lot of different groups. This lets any individual group point the finger at another group not doing their part in fixing the problem and use that as an excuse for not doing their part in fixing the problem. People are doing that all over this thread.

Kudos to you for doing your part and acknowledging university admissions as part of the problem, but I'd be less eager to hold big tech blameless.