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Facebook, PayPal Entrepeneur Pays Kids to Drop Out of College
Filed under: In The News, Education: Teens
A 43-year-old billionaire has set aside $2 million to get kids younger than 20 to drop out of college. Credit: Getty Images
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking attended Oxford and Cambridge universities and eventually changed the way we look at the universe.
He would probably tout the advantage of a college education.
Yeah, but Peter Thiel was one of the guys who invented PayPal. And not only does he want you to drop out of college, but he's willing to pay you to do it.
Who are you going to listen to?
"Learning is good. Credentialing and debt is very bad," Thiel tells ABC News. "College gives people learning and also takes away future opportunities by loading the next generation down with debt."
So, the 43-year-old billionaire has set aside $2 million to get kids younger than 20 to drop out of college. He gives kids $100,000 each to bag school in favor of starting a business.
Good idea, right? Some half of new businesses fail, but how could that possibly happen to a spunky teenager armed with a high school diploma?
Thiel says, believe it or not, the idea is working.
"We ended up picking 24 people to try to get them to work on very specific projects that would push the frontiers of science and tech in areas ranging from biomedicine to computers to robotics," he tells ABC.
Pushing the frontiers of biomedicine, computers and robotics? With a high school education?
Thiel has a law degree from Stanford University -- maybe he should have bought a Porsche instead. He tells ABC he doubts the value of a college education. And his doubts are spreading.
Editors of New York magazine recently rated the worthlessness of a college degree as "one of the year's most fashionable ideas." Then again, what do you expect? Most of them were probably journalism majors.
Thiel tells ABC young people need to strike while the iron is hot.
"Facebook was started in 2004," he points out. "That was the right time to start that company. If all the people had finished their college education and waited till 2006, it would have been too late."
Thiel's initial $500,000 investment in Facebook, by the way, is now worth some $2 billion.
Among the young buying what Thiel is selling is Eden Full, who dropped out of Princeton to pursue an idea for new solar panels.
"These panels are so unique," she tells ABC. "I need to get them out there now."
Some 65 percent of Americans have student loan debt, and the typical college student leaves school $24,000 in the hole, according to ABC. By the end the year, the network estimates, student loan debt will surpass credit card debt in the United States.
"The price of education on a college level has gone up by a factor of more than 10 since 1980," Thiel tells ABC. "Adjusted for inflation, it's gone up by about 300 percent -- more than housing and tech stocks did in the '90s or housing in the 2000s. It's quite possible for a person to go to a top-tier private school and end up with a quarter million in debt."
But even if young people can have more money and less debt by not going to college, what about the intrinsic value of a college education? What about the importance of having an educated population able to make intelligent decisions in a free and self-governing society?
And what about the need for young people understand the world so they can make it a better place?
Thiel tells ABC his ideas have already made the world a better place. PayPal enables people to buy stuff on eBay without having to get a money order. And next up? Thiel is working with people who want to create colonies in the middle of earth's oceans.
Take that, Dr. Hawking.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
5-27-2011 @ 2:12PM
Cory said...Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most college students over 18? The headline should read 'students', not 'kids'.
Reply
5-31-2011 @ 11:06AM
pam said...I buy almost everything except food and clothing from online auctions.
Most people aren't aware of the almost unbelievable deals that they can get from online auction sites. The site that has the best deals is HTtp://bit.ly/savedbig and I checked with the Better Business Bureau and was told that it is all legit. How they can sell gift cards,
laptops, cameras, and all kinds of goodies that we all want for 50-90% off, I don't know. I do know that I bought my son an iPad there for less than $100 and my husband a $250 Loews gift cards for $48. Why would I even think about shopping anyplace else?
5-27-2011 @ 2:47PM
Michael Harrah said...There are plenty of college "kids" who afre in clollege and shouldn't be. If the student plans to go into medicine, law, engineering, architecture, finance, business, education -- in short, the professions -- college degrees are a must. For the rest of them, not so much. Too many college students are juist being warehoused at enormous expense. they need to get out and go on with their lives.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 2:48PM
old enough to remember said...If you read deeply into the article, not everyone applying is getting seed money to start their own business. Thiel is picking and choosing those ideas that he thinks have a chance. Guess it is like the tv show Shark Tank.
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5-27-2011 @ 3:00PM
Lindsi said...And how the hell did Stephen Hawking's name get dragged into this inane article?
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 3:25PM
muffie said...Because it's written by a dropout.
5-27-2011 @ 3:18PM
Peter said...Let's see..."PayPal enables people to buy stuff on eBay without having to get a money order." Love that comment. How about the truth...eBay (owns PayPal) will not ALLOW buyers to use money orders. What's left? PayPal. I sold MANY things on eBay years ago and was paid by money order MANY times.. Of course, when eBay bought PayPal, they changed the rules so their profits soared. Not because of anything else. They both have gotten so greedy that I sell almost exclusively on other sites that are free or close to that.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 3:18PM
Lee said...This is nothing....."Teen Mom" on MTV pays girls $100,000 a year to get knocked up, drop out of HIGH SCHOOL and flash their trashy life on television.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 4:21PM
Taylor said...seriously?? That's really screwed up.
5-27-2011 @ 3:50PM
Frank said...I totally agree with Thiel. I feel college did absolutely nothing fpr my career. Just added some debt. I have run several companies and I do not base hiring decisions on education at all! I have founf that life experience and learning on the job creates far better employees than college. College needs to only require courses relevant to the major and reduce the required number of credits to graduate to reflect that. Colleges are ripping off the youth of this nation requiring nonsensical courses that are not needed in real life. They don't care what is relevant to your aspirations....only that they get to charge you for 18 credits a semester.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 4:12PM
AnswerLady said...I agree with Thiel and Frank. I never went to college, but have a great job in Educational Publishing! I READ and WRITE, and work on MATH books that college "kids" learn from. My children are also doing well, but I admit they have taken Some college courses. Most people I know are not as intelligent. I'm not sure that college did much for them.
5-27-2011 @ 8:36PM
Mary said...I worked at a university in the late 1980's and early 1990's as an administrative assistant on government grants. The behavior exhibited by some of the professors and some of the students amazed me. One minority female student was on the verge of receiving her Masters degree in education administration, she could not write a letter that made any sense, it contained terrible spelling and sentence structure. She, the student, wrote a commendation for one of the professors of my acquaintance who asked me (a high school graduate) to re-write the letter and have the student sign it. This is one example of many I observed while working in the College of Education. No wonder the schools are in so much trouble. Teachers cannot teach what they do not know.
5-27-2011 @ 4:17PM
Tracie Smith said...I don't know how I feel about something like this. An education is very important in one's life, BUT at the same time, I know of people who have Master's degrees and can't find a job in their specialty...so, I guess you do what is needed to make a living, as long as it is legal...just not sure how I feel about someone being paid to drop out of school.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 6:29PM
jen said...I didn't look at it as being paid to drop out, I saw it as someone giving interested parties financial aid to start a business.
5-27-2011 @ 4:45PM
Heidi said...This is part of the social engineering of the Conservative Right. They are trying to lower the expectations of the 99% so the 1% can continue without protest their ever increasing wealth of the nation. The dumbing down of the masses is proving to be a bonanza for the free market capitalists. and the destruction of the social safety net. To give $100,000 to an uneducated teenager for any reason is beyond comprehension. Those who do not get the cash reward for rejecting education will also buy into the myth that education is not necessary.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 4:59PM
pbihomes said...We should pay a bunch of the inner city kids to drop out of elementary school so that others could lear. These kids will just be going to jail anyway.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 5:18PM
isisreptiles said...I think it's a great idea. This society way overemphasizes the value of a college education. Too many people are in college who shouldn't be. A four-year college degree is the new high school diploma. Too many people are leaving college with a huge debt and a degree which won't help them in the job market.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 5:28PM
laurieshafer5 said...Academic Education falls short for many & cannot keep up with the real world, as our knowledge is doubling every 3 years...intelligence is dynamic & interactive. Therefore, I support giving the ones with the best potential an opportunity to thrive. It offers much better possibilities than having a Master Degree & competing for $8 an hour jobs.
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 5:33PM
Robert said...College is an opportunity for students to grow intellectually,
emotionally and spiritually. They may take a physics or art history
course that will expand their horizons. I think it is a real disservice
to kids when someone offers them money to drop out of college.
It isn't just about preparing for a career. It's about preparing for life!!
Reply
5-27-2011 @ 5:35PM
Robert said...what a racist comment!!!
Reply