They Bet on Themselves

In part, that trend of leaving school prior to graduation is driven by sharply rising tuitions, which have doubled since the 1980s. There is currently $1.5 trillion in student debt. And in part by the realization that a humanistic education, apart from one’s specific major, is no longer to be had: Culture war orthodoxies have overtaken the exploration of the great questions of existence.

Since 2010, venture capitalist Peter Thiel has been offering $200,000 fellowships to young people who want to “build new things instead of sitting in a classroom.” And the 1517 Fund, headed by Danielle Strachman and Michael Gibson, who helped start the Thiel Fellowship, invests only in companies started by students or college dropouts. The Fund’s founders seek to free students from the credentialing paper belt of higher education.

Among the 200 attendees at a Dropout Graduation ceremony in an old San Francisco movie theater this past summer were a number who raised millions of dollars for startups while in college, prior to dropping out, and several who did so while still in high school and then decided to skip college altogether.

HISTORICALLY, THE MOST FAMOUS dropouts have been concentrated in high tech — Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Steve Jobs. But the list is growing of those who bet on their ability to create something totally new, without the benefit of a college education. Charlie Kirk spent a few weeks in college before deciding it was not for him.