I believe the title is wrong. Virtually none of the applicants were "dropouts," although some were accepted to prestigious colleges and decided not to go. The program was envisioned as an alternative to college, and most applicants were pre-entry.
If that's true, the "College thing he doesn't miss:" detail is also highly misleading, since it too implies they used to be in college.
If you look at the bios of the kids, a bunch of them already had degrees and were in higher level university programs before they entered Thiel's program.
What is "a bunch" ? 30% ? I still don't think it makes sense to refer to them as dropouts unless over 50% were enrolled in a college at the time of application and left a higher-degree program in order to do the program.
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I wasn't saying this is why we can call them dropouts. I was trying to say here's more reason why they shouldn't be considered dropouts. And specifically, I was adding to the refutation for the "college he didn't miss thing".
It was a bit amusing to read that section, since I think a lot of the comments were highly off-base about a college experience (at least my college experience).