It depends on "where", in any city. You could certainly find a 2BR in somewhere like MSP or Chicago, but it won't be near the downtown core, and you'll have some interesting neighbors.

A couple years ago, myself and two friends were living in a 6Br/2.5Ba house for a total of $1900/mo. So, $633 each, and while the house was a little cold in the winter and the neighborhood wasn't exactly the cultural center of the midwestern city, it was a short drive to somewhere more interesting, and we each had two bedrooms. And no, it wasn't a mansion; it just had a really strange layout, and a couple of the "bedrooms" legally weren't "bedrooms".

You can find it. But oftentimes kids coming right out of college come to big towns with this idealism of "i want to live in a high rise apartment, in the downtown center, go out with friends every weekend". Every time I have that conversation, I encourage them: do that for a year. You'll have the money. But year 2: think more critically about saving money, move further away from the "hip" areas. And still go out every weekend with your friends!

Top 50 covers a lot more than you'd think! The Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro is actually the 16th largest, and there's plenty more midwest cities included as well. But you are of course right that $600/month is widely less than what you'd be paying in any of the high cost coastal cities

I’ve lived in Midwest cities and that is not anywhere near realistic even 5 years ago. Maybe in some dead towns