Go talk to Dropbox, and ask them if they give below market salaries, options that will likely never pay off, and an expectation that you work 80 hours a week.

But you're right that that's the danger of joining a startup coming out of college -- you have no idea which ones are great and which ones are not.

If some intermediating third party vetted the startups for the students we wouldn't have that problem.

Such an idea has worked in all kinds of problem domains, but in startups founded by college grads YC is the standard. Having the PG stamp of approval is so valuable.