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PayPal Co-Founder Gives Out $100,000 To Not Go To College

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-rich-man-goes-to-college-and-a-poor-man-goes-to-work dept.

Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel says the key to quicker business innovation is skipping college. His foundation is handing out $100,000 to 24 people under 20 to drop out of college for two years and start companies. From the press release: "As the first members of the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, the Fellows will pursue innovative scientific and technical projects, learn entrepreneurship, and begin to build the technology companies of tomorrow. During their two-year tenure, each Fellow will receive $100,000 from the Thiel Foundation as well as mentorship from the Foundation’s network of tech entrepreneurs and innovators. The project areas for this class of fellows include biotech, career development, economics and finance, education, energy, information technology, mobility, robotics, and space."

2 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Different cases, different people by morcego · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is just stupid. Yes, some people will do better starting a company instead of going to college (myself included), but that is not the rule, that is the exception.
    The vast majority will do worst if they drop college to start a company. Heck, most will crash and burn starting a company even after college.
    The numbers of factor determining "success without/instead of college" is staggering, and it is not about $100k (heck, I did it with a quarter of that).

    --
    morcego
  2. Re:Neat! by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These students should avoid failure by blowing $150k in college to qualify for a entry level job. Much more successful.

    Whenever I see this I have to ask, "what posessed that young student to go to an out-of-state college"?

    I mean, I am right now attending college part time (trying to convert an awful associates to a full bachelors). Im just finished freshman / sophmore levels at a community college at a whopping $95 per credit hour, and will be going to a state university this fall at an astounding $500 per credit hour. My bill at the end of all of this will be less than $45000, for a full bachelors degree.

    I could, of course, have chosen to go to an out-of-state ritzy school like Georgetown, lived on campus, and blown $45000 per semester... but then, I really wouldnt have anyone else to blame for my debt but myself, would I?