- Peter Thiel plans to give 20 more young people $100,000 to avoid going to college.
- Thiel started the fellowship in 2010 to encourage students to take time off from school and start a company instead.
- The initiative has drawn criticism from education leaders.
Don’t stay in school, kids.
That's the message billionaire Peter Thiel is sending as he expands a fellowship program that offers $100,000 to students willing to quit college and start a company instead.
Some of the latest batch of applicants are planning to launch projects related to hot industries such as AI and cryptocurrencies.
PayPal's founders started the program in 2010 with an initial group of 24 young people. He gave them $100,000 over two years so they could skip college and work on entrepreneurial projects. More than 270 people have participated in the program since its inception.
Thiel said he originally started the business to prove that the American university system is not for everyone. This is no longer a particularly destructive view, as more young people are considering alternative paths to success to avoid debt.
While workers with a bachelor's degree earn 31% more than those with an associate's degree and 84% more than those with a high school diploma, the cost of college has been steadily rising for decades. Masu.
Thiel said he decided to extend the program because he believes American universities are currently too “woke” and wants to encourage young people to stay away from them.
“Our view is that this is still an out-of-field game where you get people kicked out,” Thiel told the magazine.
Mr. Thiel himself holds multiple degrees from Stanford University.
According to Tech Crunch, former Harvard University President Larry Summers called the effort “the most misguided philanthropy” at a conference in 2013.
Vivek Wadhwa, a former Washington Post columnist and Harvard researcher, wrote in Tech Crunch that he “wouldn't allow a friend to take Peter Thiel's educational advice,” and that the best path to success was that college He advised me to obtain a degree in.
Wadhwa wrote that while an “elite” Ivy League education is unnecessary, getting a basic education and “finishing what you start” will help students succeed.
