Saying No to College

GMTplus7
Sun, 02 Dec 2012 03:05:24 +0000

@SEWinter,

There are a zillion jobs in this world not associated with venture capitalists betting on you to be successful. CC parents need to step out of the bubble into the real world.



All the other notables mentioned in the article were “vetted” by being admitted into and attending a reputable (not necessarily Ivy) university:


Michael Dell: dropout UT Austin
Steve Jobs: dropout Reed College
Bill Gates: dropout Harvard
Mark Zuckerburg: dropout Harvard
Jack Dorsey (Twitter): dropout NYU
Evan Williams (Twitter): dropout U Nebraska
Kevin Rose (Digg): dropout U Nevada Las Vegas


Or, if they did not go to college at all they received a big injection of venture capital:


David Karp (Tumblr): attended an exclusive NY Upper West Side private school before attending Bronx Science and finally being homeschooled. He used his earnings as a software consultant for UrbanBaby to launch Tumblr which expanded after investment money from venture capitalists.


The NYT article goes on to mention several “no-college” gurus who are advocating for students to skip college. They are telling students to do as they say, not as they do:



Perhaps most famously, Peter A. Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, in 2010 started his Thiel Fellowship program, which pays students under 20 years old $100,000 apiece to bag college and pursue their own ventures.

Thiel graduated B.A. Stanford, then a graduated J.D. Stanford Law School.



James Altucher, a prominent investor, entrepreneur and pundit who self-published a book called “40 Alternatives to College.”

Altucher graduated B.S. Cornell, then was a PhD. candidate at Carnegie Mellon.

The last person mentioned in the article, HS senior Jean Fan, an editor for “UnCollege”, is applying to elite universities right now.

Yes, there may be a zillion jobs out there that don’t require college or venture capital, but I will continue to counsel my kids that their odds of landing a job that pays a living wage and is intellectually fulfilling are severely curtailed if they do not go to college.