My new hero

[Dejavu]

http://www.thielfoundation.org/inde...hiel-fellowship-20-under-20&catid=1&Itemid=16

Peter Thiel, who founded paypal and was the first investor in facebook, has decided to make a new scholoarship to help create what he thinks is lacking in the US atm. He is offering 20 people under 20 100k each to drop out of college and persue their business ideas. His reasoning for this scholarship is that he thinks that for people with really good ideas college is worthless and in many cases a hindrance citing many of the well know risk takers in business like Jobs, Gates, Zuckermann, Fanning, Andregg etc. By going to college you learn past knowledge and anyone with true vision only needs to draw on their own dreams and experience to make radical technological changes.

 

[Taurothar]

I think that's awesome.

 

[Takumifujiwara]

Its the truth. More and more sheep fall into the trap of thinking college is the ONLY way to succeed in life. Something we pound into children to the point of cult-like behavior. Innovators come from every walk of life.

 

[Raesvelg]

True, but if you're not going to invent the next big thing (and let's be honest here, you're not. Yeah, sure, there are people without college educations who have been wildly successful; they are vastly outnumbered by the people without college educations who have been held back by the lack of a degree) then getting the degree will increase the range of options you have available to you.

 

[Skaw]

True, but if you're not going to invent the next big thing (and let's be honest here, you're not. Yeah, sure, there are people without college educations who have been wildly successful; they are vastly outnumbered by the people without college educations who have been held back by the lack of a degree) then getting the degree will increase the range of options you have available to you.

Pretty much this. 100k won't cut the difference down the line when it turns out you're not one of the lucky few who strike something successful and get stuck working at McDonald's for the rest of your existance. Keep trucking for your MA/BA, then try to do the whole innovating thing afterwards so you've got something to fall back on.

 

[alanon]

True, but if you're not going to invent the next big thing (and let's be honest here, you're not. Yeah, sure, there are people without college educations who have been wildly successful; they are vastly outnumbered by the people without college educations who have been held back by the lack of a degree) then getting the degree will increase the range of options you have available to you.

Agree 100%
Most innovations require improving upon ideas and items that are already out there. This almost requires/necessatates an education so that you can learn about what went down before.

More people win the lottery than "innovate" and strike it rich. Not everyone can mishape a fricken rubber band, call it "silly", then sell a bajillion to pre-teen girls everywhere....

 

[Pascal]

Jobs and Gates both came from successful families and had something to fall back on. Gates didn’t leave college until after they had a contract to sell BASIC. Woz the real inventor at Apple didn’t leave college until after it become obvious that there was a real interest in his computer, and was pretty much set for a job at Hewlett-Packard. Paul Allen left college to become a programmer at Honeywell. Zuckermann started Facebook while he was at college and didn’t leave until after it started taking off. I don’t know anything about Fanning and Andregg.

The key thing here is these people had some kind of backup plan or something to fall back on should things fail. There is no rule that says while you’re at college that you can’t start working on your ideas. Then if things take off you can leave to presume them more fully.
The bigger issues that need to be address at least in the US, is our education system has become stale and we are not turning out free thinkers.

 

[Taurothar]

By no means is this scholarship saying that nobody needs college. He's saying that he's going to give 20 people a chance to take a risk on their great idea that they got while in their first two years at college. Will all 20 succeed? not likely. If 1 out of those 20 succeed where they wouldn't have ever had the chance working 50-60 hours a week to pay off massive student loan debt at their entry level salaried job, it would be a huge win for this guy as the initial investor. It's rewarding people who are real free thinkers and giving them a chance to go for it. Zuckerberg would NEVER have gotten Facebook off the ground without proper financial backing, and he was lucky enough to be at Harvard with a rich best friend. Not everyone is that lucky.

Our stale, broken education system in America is turning out people with huge amounts of debt right out of the gate with little/no hope of advancing past that. Doing the math recently the monthly payment on student loans almost directly offsets the income differential between degree and non-degree jobs. Most student loan repayment plans are on a 10-30 year schedule. So if you go to a state school, get a degree, at best you're surviving for 10 years in the industry barely taking home more than the schmo working full time at Best Buy whilst paying off your loans. If you're one of the people who went to private schools? Make that 30 years. Better hope that you can keep a job long enough to get promoted in that time or else you'll be almost retired before you've paid off your loans. Not to mention the current job market is completely awful. I recently read an article (linked here) that found over 8000 people working as waitstaff while having attained a PhD or professional degree.

But I'm just ranting because I have a serious problem with the expense and expectation associated with higher education in America, when it offers no guarantee of work in your, or any, field nor does it offer much financial benefit when weighing the consequences of loans against the supposed higher income rates. The student loan system needs a major overhaul along with the *entire* American educational system in order for us to regain status as an international beacon for intelligence and innovation. Right now we're sad and pathetic, sitting over 20 down the list of top math and science skills of developed nations on almost every study I could find.

 

[Lucki]

I'd be curious to see the numbers on what kind of degree most people graduate with. I'd also be curious to see what types of jobs recent graduates are not taking because they feel they should be entitled to something that pays more.

 

[Georgebobbilly]

I'd be curious to see the numbers on what kind of degree most people graduate with. I'd also be curious to see what types of jobs recent graduates are not taking because they feel they should be entitled to something that pays more.

It's by no means scientific, but every time I pass through the liberal arts college it's packed on my campus.

 

[Lucki]

It's by no means scientific, but every time I pass through the liberal arts college it's packed on my campus.

That's all well and good, but if a most of those students are majoring in worthless degrees like African-American Studies, American Studies, Dance, Music, Romance Languages, and Studio Art (to name a few that the University of Maryland offers), that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

 

[Lucki]

A person holding a degree in any of those specialties goes into the program knowing full-well that they will not likely get a job that is 100% (or even 70%) relevant to the field they have chosen.

Student Athletes (mainly the sports that have the potential to make someone millions) typically choose easy degrees, which more often than not, aren't worth the paper they are printed on. They are just in it to fulfill their college requirements to remain eligible.

Only a person with an Information Technology degree is moronic enough to believe the hype, that he will make $55,000 straight out of school.

I'd wager that that applies to most degree's.

 

[Raesvelg]

People pursuing narrowly focused degrees built for specific professions probably usually assume that they'll be able to apply their degree either right out of college, or shortly after. Engineers typically assume that they're going to be working an engineering job, etc. Hell, I myself assume that I'll probably get a teaching job not too long after graduation, assuming I manage to make it through student teaching without a nervous breakdown.

An English degree, on the other hand.... Yeah. I've never actually met an English major who was operating under the assumption that they were going to make oodles of money through their degree. Most of them want to write, and understand that they'll probably wind up taking crappy jobs (though often better jobs than they could manage without a degree) while they're trying to break into the field.

 

[Valandil]

I have not one, not two, but three degrees in the Liberal Arts/Humanities -- B.A in Philosophy, B.A. in Classical Cultures, B.A. in Latin -- as well as a M.A. in Latin Education. Like Tristam said, I did not go into these fields of studies with the intent of only pursuing a career in one of them. Those doors are obviously open to me, and I may end up applying to a doctorate program somewhere down the road so that I can teach college, but for the time being I work in a field that is completely unrelated to any of those disciplines--corporate governance. That being said, there are a number of skills that are valuable to any field in a Liberal Arts/Humanities program. Excellent writing skills, excellent research skills, most Liberal Arts/Humanities degrees have one or more foreign language requirements, the ability to give a professional presentation, analytical skills, critical reasoning skills, etc.

I think there is a big misconception about college and degree programs in America these days. Like others have mentioned, I think a lot of people pick a degree field and expect to able to find a job specific to that degree field. As we all know, unless you're doing something extremely specialized, like biochemical engineering, this is rarely how things work out for a college graduate. I chose all of my degree fields, not because I necessarily expected to be working in them for the rest of my adult life, but rather because I had a passion for the material, topics, and applicable lessons covered by each one. People should approach education just like they approach an investment portfolio, because that's really what an education is, an investment in yourself--diversification. Take something from every class you take, whether it's a Gen Ed requirement or a Capstone course, and figure out how to apply that something to every aspect of your life. This will not only make you more well-rounded individual, but it will also make you a much more attractive job candidate. Employers don't want someone who can only do one thing or approach something from one perspective, they want someone who can adapt, learn on the fly, take abstract theory and make it work in reality, etc. I think this is where the innovation comes from that Mr. Thiel is trying to promote. It's not that a college education stifles innovation, it's that people stifle themselves by trying to define themselves too narrowly in terms of their education. I don't know about others on this forum who have Liberal Arts/Humanities degrees, but every Philosophy, Classics, and even many of my Latin courses that I ever took very much promoted open discussion and the development of individual ideas. If that isn't promoting innovation and creative thinking, then I don't know what else could be labeled as such.

 

[Dejavu]