When Makinde Adeagbo and 21 other undergraduate college students arrived here in June for a five-week computer-science training program on Microsoft's corporate campus, they were excited about the opportunity to get an inside look at life at Microsoft. Among the surprises: how much input everyone has in defining the products they work on; how much pride everyone takes in their job; and, of course, the free beverages Microsoft provides to employees.

But the biggest surprise was the fact that they spent so much of their time building real software features for real customers. While they expected to do some development work, most of the students assumed they would be assigned relatively meaningless tasks. Instead, they've toiled on a number of high-profile projects, including a feature in the upcoming MSN Music Service.

"The feature will be used by tens of millions of people," says Adeagbo, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's been intense and included some all-nighters, but we own the feature, and we've done every part of it."