I have seen quite a number of trollers out there like you who believe that high calibre university students = getting a job at MBB + IB/S&T + FAANG. Yes, these companies tend to attract high calibre students, but it does not mean other companies do not attract high calibre students.

Singtel MAP for instance does attract high-calibre students. There are a few ivy league students that are actually part of the programme. Also, Singtel MAP has its unique selling point that makes it different from other MAPs out there that makes it possible to attract high-calibre students. Most of the MAPs out there are finance-only. For those people that aren't interested in finance, but do want to join a MAP, Singtel is a great option. Even comparing MAPs like Visa that do offer some options for people to rotate across different functions, it is not as diverse as what Singtel offers. Singtel literally lets their MAPs choose a rotation from a list of 150+ different roles. Some of the roles include strategy, CEO office, VC. Name me a company in Singapore that let's their MAP do a rotation in Strategy or VC.

In addition, FAANG does not hire fresh grads on a regular basis like what other companies do, especially if you are from a non-technical background. Even if you are high calibre student that wants to land a job at FAANG, sometimes, there is simply no job opening for them to even apply.

Also, most of the high calibre international students studying in local universities simply can't get a job at these prestigious companies because they don't hire foreigners as a fresh grad. Just go and google the MAP job postings that was posted by companies such as Microsoft, Visa, JNJ, etc. They explicitly stated in their JD that they only hire people who have existing working rights in Singapore. It is also a well-known fact that banks no longer higher foreigners as a fresh graduate (Yes there are PRCs who do get a job offer from banks, but their headcount is under HK, although they work in Singapore so it is a different story altogether).

'Prestigious companies' like MBB and BB is not for everyone. Yes, you earn 14k as a IB graduate analyst at BB. But you are expected to work 6-7 days a week, until 3-4am. I have a couple of friends decided that IB were not their path as they literally worked every single day until 3am during their whole internship as a summer analyst at the BBs. They ended up accepting a pay that was much lower but they are much happier.

Also, I do know some person who did not know how to answer a single question during the technical interview for a graduate analyst as a S&T + IB, and yet the person managed to receive an offer. You might argue that answering a technical interview well doesn't mean you will get the job. But if you can't even answer a single technical question, are you sure you can call these people high-calibre?????