Depends on how much home you go for; most people buy or rent far more home than they need or can afford. Sure, if you're in the middle of Mountain View or NYC, even the tiniest apartment can be exorbitantly expensive, both in absolute terms and as a fraction of salary (which does not scale to the same degree). Those locales are fundamentally expensive to live in unless you get very creative. On the other hand, in most other locales, if you're willing to live on the high end of "student" rather than on the high end of "professional", while getting paid like a professional, living on a small fraction of your income is quite feasible.
And in any case, there's no sense giving up on the idea completely even if you can't hit the most aggressive savings rate; even if you only save 50% of your income, you can retire after 17 years, which puts you on track to retire in your early 40s instead of your late 60s. Even better, as you progress through your career, your salary will likely increase, but your spending doesn't have to match. 50% of your salary right out of college may only be 25% of your salary later on.
Indeed, "dumping raises into savings" was one of the smartest things I ever did, financially. When I moved from working from a university to working at a mid-sized corporation, I got roughly a 25% pay bump. Every single dollar of that went into savings (fully funding the 401(k) and Employee Stock Purchase Plan, etc.).
This did a couple of things... it kept a lid on living expenses because there was no additional cash, but it also provided an easy way for me to raise my savings every year without having to make too many conscious choices, just by moving every pay raise into savings.
And in any case, there's no sense giving up on the idea completely even if you can't hit the most aggressive savings rate; even if you only save 50% of your income, you can retire after 17 years, which puts you on track to retire in your early 40s instead of your late 60s. Even better, as you progress through your career, your salary will likely increase, but your spending doesn't have to match. 50% of your salary right out of college may only be 25% of your salary later on.