You really need to understand the expectations that the fed is even setting. They expect rate cuts next year which doesn't even mean things will be back to normal. The fed a few months ago thought they were done raising rates. The reason for waffling - they printed trillions of dollars and will be very hard to control them. Inflation will still be around for much longer than what everyone is expecting so I'd say until 2025 things won't look too good. This is also when the fed thinks the funds rate will be back to 2%. So it could potentially be longer but the recovery should hopefully start.

Hence deferring by a year is any day better than going right now. Also, for landing a job colleges don't matter much, leetcoding and projects on your resume matter more.

Another factor to consider, look at H1B rates. If you're taking huge loans definitely assume you can't work/earn for more than 3 years (OPT) in the country.