Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?

This is one question only you can answer. In my opinion, if you have to ask, then you should stay in school for the time being.

In "A Student's Guide to Startups," Paul Graham writes:

"...Our official policy now is only to fund undergrads we can't talk out of [leaving college]. And frankly, if you're not certain, you should wait. It's not as if all the opportunities to start companies are going to be gone if you don't do it now."

The short answer: no.

It becomes diminishingly difficult to go back to school as you get older. The same applies for doing a startup, unfortunately. The difference is that you can generate income while building a startup. It's more difficult to get investors to pay you to go to college. Thus, finish.

To make your task easier, here's my rule-of-thumb formula for determining the difficulty level for finishing college or creating a startup:

(log(m+1) + w^2 + c + s) x log(y+1), where m is any mortgage, in dollars, w is the number of wives, c is the number of children, s is yourself, and y is your age, in years.

To give you an idea: the average 20 year old has a difficulty factor of about 1.3. A 30 year old with a family and a mortgage is about 6 and a 40 year old in the same boat is about 15. YMMV.

Good luck.

I realize everyone's situation is different, but I would strongly discourage leaving school early (or at least as an undergrad). In the big scheme of things I think it is too important of a milestone to throw away. There is more to life than becoming rich as soon as possible... While I benefited most from my CS classes, I also learned a great deal from non-major classes. I really think many of them have made me a more well rounded person. In addition, I learned a great deal about social situations and self confidence that I probably would have missed out on had I quit early. These are life lessons you don't get from writing code.

In fact, I'm glad I got a job right after school. I've only been working for 6 months and I'm definitely ready to leave and start my own company, but I've learned quite a few invaluable things. I think when you've actually "seen" the working life it drives you even harder to build a startup. It focuses your drive. Again, everyone is different, just my personal advice... "Be cool, stay in school"

BTW, statistically an extended "leave of absence" has a very low probability of turning into a degree. It was said but as you get older it becomes harder and harder to go back to school... Something to keep in mind I guess.

"If you do have to leave grad school, in the worst case it won't be for too long. If a startup fails, it will probably fail quickly enough that you can return to academic life. And if it succeeds, you may find you no longer have such a burning desire to be an assistant professor." - How to Start a Startup

That article basically made me question the premise of continuing on with my Electrical Engineering degree. During school, I was fascinated by social networks and dividents of collective capability and genius; so I dropped out of school to learn new web programming languages, marketing and business. Then, a few months ago, I finally let my social network out to the public. It was, and continues to be, a thrilling experience.

At this age, we have less responsibilities and a more flexible timetable than we may ever have again. I say leave college; if your startup fails, you can always go back.

I'm still a freshman at university. Is taking time off to pursue a startup a good idea? If somebody has a certain amount of dedication, it's possible to leave school, succeed in a startup, come back to school and graduate. What's holding us back?

It depends on your mindset. I had fully intended to complete my undergrad while working part-time and then create a startup or pursue a masters.

Instead, my health forced me to drop one of my activities, and it ended up being my schooling. It was stressful, but at this point I am glad I chose to drop my college courses. I would not have gained the experience I have now and my income and work history would have remained relatively stagnant. I would potentially have been forced to move back to the country and live with my parents while I re-gained my health. I would have never worked with the people I worked with and learned about running a company this early in life if I had completed school first.

In the end, it worked to my advantage. In my case, I realized that a degree is something you can get at any time (I still fully intend to complete my CS degree in the future). Work experience and opportunities are harder to come by. For someone else, college (especially a prestigious school) may provide the opportunities I had to look outside for. It all depends on your mindset, your social skills, your location, and your technical/business skills.

In short: no one can really answer this for you. You need to consider your goals, your current opportunities, and the opportunities your current course of action may present to you in the future.

I spoke to numerous YC alumni about this and they all offered valuable feedback. My takeaway was the same conclusion I always had: it's worth it. I already know what I want to do, and I have no problem leaving school to work on this full-time. This is not right for everybody (or even most), but I can talk forever about why it's right for me.

I made this decision about two weeks ago: in my final year of an engineering/computer science double degree, I've decided to take a leave of absence and pursue some of the web startup ideas I have.

The decision was made when I saw other people successfully implementing ideas that I was trying to get done in my spare time. I still feel a bit reckless because I don't have the idea, just a lot of smaller potential ones, but the absolute worst thing that can happen is that I graduate one year later.

Lots of people told me that I should be careful that I don't throw away my degrees, but I can only see that happening in two ways: (a) I am wildly successful, in which case the degrees won't matter; or (b) I think that I'm on the verge of significant success right when the time comes to go back to uni. The latter is probably the most dangerous part of taking this path, so be sure that you can make a rational decision if (b) does happen.

You should realize a few things first and weight them: 1. your wants 2. if you are satisfied or not, if you feel not doing what you love or depressed or pressed 3. your determination, be ready to fail and few other questions PG pointed out in his speech.

Thus examine if pursuaing through a break a startup could fulfil what is missing from your life, and if its worth it contrary to what you may miss if you didn't take time off.

It can be both an easy and a very difficult decision. And you shouldn't let anyone affect you, because remember most people of your surrounding are not aware and cannot think the same way you do, no matter how close they are to you.

Where will you learn more?

Four years of college will teach you some things. Four years of starting a business will teach you more.

Given a 22 year old applicatant for a job, I will take the one who never went to college and started a business over the newly minted degree, generally.

There is a third path-- drop out to join a startup that's just gotten funded. You learn a lot, reduce risk of not geting your idea off the ground after you drop out, and you will earn money rather than increase your debt burden.

I left school due to money problems. As much as I want to go back, I won't be able to for another couple of years.

So, going to school is the number one priority in my opinion.

You can also be crazy and do both school and a startup at the same time. Not that I would recommend that option. :-)

This is a hard question. I considered dropping out multiple times in college, but ended up sticking it out and getting my degree. I'm still not sure if it was the right choice, but it seems to be working out so far. Anyways, I have no answers, but I have some observations.

One of my main fears in college was that I would graduate, take a soul-crushing job, and then lose all desire to start a startup. This hasn't happened. I still want a successful startup just as much as I did in college, or maybe even more. You're not going to stop wanting what you've always wanted just because you have a degree, a job, money, and options.

OTOH, having a job and an income fucks with your perceptions a little. I was lucky (smart?) and didn't change my spending habits; over the past year and a half that I've been working, I banked close to 90% of my take-home pay. Even though I'm financially much more secure than I was coming out of college, it feels much more precarious - I've gotten used to having a certain amount of money coming in each month. Quitting my day job wouldn't be an issue if I didn't have a day job.

Don't underestimate the experience you'll learn on the job. I feel like I've benefited significantly from working in somebody else's startup for a year and a half before trying my own. It also creates a sense of momentum and gets your brain in gear; you'll need all the focus you can have when starting your startup.

Don't overestimate the book learning you'll get in college. Honestly, I don't think a single thing I learned in the classroom has helped me with my startup.

OTOH, a lot of college learning occurs outside the classroom. My impossible quest to complete a computer science major in one semester while the department would not let me declare one turned out to be exactly what startup life is all about. There will be many moments when you have to work like hell for what feels like zero payoff. It's a good experience to really fuck up and then recover from it, because you do that a lot with startups. If you skip the recovery part in college, how do you know you'll be able to do it with your startup?

Also, I met my cofounders in college. Had I left after freshman year, I would never have known them. Had I left later, I probably wouldn't have kept in touch.

Probably the biggest factor in my decision not to leave is that I didn't have a clear idea what I would do instead. That's probably the biggest determinant: if you know exactly what you'll be working on instead (like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg) do that instead. If you don't, stay in school, because you'll probably end up doing nothing instead, and nothing isn't a particularly good teacher.

its just ur life journey ! its up to you if to take a bus or a train!

Good idea or not is depended on who u ask! Important is what wd u like to do now!