Answering The Should I Go To College/Drop Out? Question For Young Entrepreneurs

Part of the problem is that the university, in its current form, is outdated.

Young adults are kept in their cocoon for far too long. Michelangelo started work at 14; young people now start at 24 or older. Productive years are wasted, people accumulating debt rather than saving, living in a bubble rather than doing something useful.

The university traditionally was for the top few % - the children of the wealthy, as a few years of freedom before taking on the family firm, and a select few of the lower classes as a ticket to government and upper management. Nowadays companies use a degree as a lazy jobs filter and its scarcity value is gone.

This is not to devalue education itself. People have longer working lives, and may change careers several times - either because they get bored or the economy changes under their feet. Short, useful periods of education and training throughout your working life may be a better way than 4 years early on in your adulthood that soon pass into irrelevance, leaving you with decades of debt.

Having eschewed higher education for "real world experience", I have to admit I regret that decision.

As valuable as working under small business owners has been, years later I wish I'd learned more about technical aspects such as managing finances or accounting. This could have been learned directly and efficiently in school, freeing energy to focus on actual business method.

On the other hand, I am only now mature enough to learn seriously and apply myself towards goals. If only I'd gotten there before my study skills have atrophied. Self teaching myself programming has been both rewarding and frustrating.

The bright side is I'm debt free, and can choose any outlet for creative energy. The darker outlook is perpetual catch-up with peers, and somewhat narrow skill sets.

For every 1 Zuckerberg there's at least 1000 other people who dropped out to start a company who crashed and burned. Also, just learning to finish big things that you start is a very handy skill to learn and practice, school is no exception.

You should read lots of blog posts, but I find books much more interesting. They cover a topic from end to end, rather than giving you an out-of-context sliver of an idea.

From a UK point of view - I left University in 2001. I finished paying off my student loan this month. And this is strictly because I have a very well paying job (I believe that you do not start paying off the loan until you earn >£18k per annum). The job I have has nothing to do with my degree (getting a First in Multimedia Design and Virtual Reality didn't count for a lot 10 months after those 767's got flown into the towers). However, I do believe, had I chosen to do a degree that was actually useful, I may have felt that higher education was the only way. As it is, I could have got a job at 18, arrived where I am now at 26 instead of 31 and then got my company to put me through a degree at their expense. Not done much research, but if there was an option to study a large amount of entrepreneurialism at degree level, then this would really float my (and a lot of other peoples) boat.

This is always a tough question to answer, as the answer is always "well, it depends"

That being said. Every single one of these people who thinks you can substitute a few books and going to a bullshit networking event for the experience of college is completely full of crap. College FORCES you to create bonds that many would honestly never have the opportunity to do so on their own. They also build social objects which become pivotal tools later in life, if you are smart enough to take advantage of them.

This is the same argument for the "Should I get an MBA?" crowd (of which I am one of those wondering that Q). You don't go to college to learn linear algebra or financial statistical modeling. You shouldn't be going to learn a trade. You should be going to learn. You should be going to engage. You should be going to experience new things. You are going to build your network.

You are much more likely to meet better partners/cofounders in college than in high school or at random networking events. At least the college has marginally vouched for them.

Should you drop out? Sure if you've tested your idea, and people other than your mom and nerdy neighbor think your idea is cool. If you can tell 5 or 10 people who you would consider "normal" about your idea and they get that it solves a problem, then drop out and run with it.

Great article, and hits everything I usually say to people asking this question. Now I can just post a link to this post every time someone asks this question on HN. Meta-meta-meta posting. :)

The first thing a potential employer should ask is 'Why didn't you finish college?' And you had better have a good reason. Even if they don't ask it out loud, they are thinking it.

LOL I am in College and I am waiting until I leave to start my business full time. so I suggest to have a back up by having the grades from college.

Don't look at your college degree as a backup plan. Study something you will really enjo (I'm a Poli Sci Major).

I met my future cofounders, employees, managers, at school. But if you want to stay in school "just in case" you need a degree for a job, you are wasting your time. Go to school because you want to learn, not because you want a job.

Hrm. I really really don't understand all this advice to go to school. Just in general, but for entrepreneurs, especially.

It's all roses and candy corn, 'meet smart people' (okay, assuming you got into a top 10% school), 'start projects not businesses' (okay if you have a scholarship or family-backing), 'show that you can finish something.'

What about the fact that it is 4 years of your life? What about the fact that you are going to come out of it with a degree, the main thing you're aiming for, that is nearly worthless if you are an entrepreneur? What about the fact that you are likely going to come out of it with 60k+ in debt?

This doesn't even consider the opportunity cost. That is four years you could spend traveling the world (meeting smart people), building companies not projects (and finishing them), potentially having some savings rather than a house-worth of debt. Not to mention the swagger that comes with pwning the world in your own way.

You want to be a teacher? Yeah, go to college, you gotta. Doctor, lawyer, same thing. But you want to make a million bucks before you're thirty shipping products? Four years of dicking off between the work you have to do for classes, 75% of which bore you is just a stretch to me as a good idea.

If you want to be top in your field while pushing the cutting edge of what's possible and what's not, go on and get your PHD and paid-access to brilliant professors, then yeah, go to school. But you are like .01% then.. not the typical 'go to school or don't' thing.

The question being answered in this article is "are there benefits to going to school?" And obviously, there are.

But the real question should be, "for an entrepeneur, is it better to spend 4 years struggling and working and building a business, learning as you go, or spend 4 years going to college and paying 60k for the privilege?"

When you frame the question that way, I think it's quite obvious that the vast majority of the time, going to school is a negative equity move.

Good post, and I think it's great that Peter Thiel is providing an alternate viewpoint re: "stopping out"

I read the post and realized how many of the points are rendered moot in the Indian education system :C, these two make me really really sad.

Meet as many smart people as possible: If you are not in the top notch schools you don't get to see a lot of them. And even when you make it into the best ones chances are that half of the class is not that intellectually simulating. I mean they are great at there course work, sure, but don't really want to think of anything else.

Study Subjects that are new and challenging: Indian colleges do not follow the choice based credit system. It's the college's way or the high way. Although there are 2-3 subjects per semester you absolutely love, the rest offset the fun by loading you with things you are not interested in.

Another point, most of the engineering students in India do not want to be an engineer. They want to get into a good MBA program.