I suspect that educational institutions favor the entrepreneurial spirit, and I say this because I can attribute my post-college success to (a) having standardi

I suspect that educational institutions favor the entrepreneurial spirit, and I say this because I can attribute my post-college success to (a) having standardized test scores and grades that fall within the tolerated range, and (b) having an analytically-oriented website that I take seriously. In other words, they won't reject me due to scores or grades, and then the website ends up being the hook that gets me in. I suspect that very few applicants have a clearly articulated entrepreneurial drive by the time they apply to college. They may well have that drive, but until they can articulate it or, better yet, create a product or service to demonstrate it, they may have a hard time making that a key part of their college application. Also, I do think that the start-up spirit will be strong in some people (and this will tend to run in peer groups due to network effect). If you believe that people often like to start by 'scratching their own itch', then you may well see a phenomenon where young creative people produce things that educational institutions might not like too much. Let's say you chat on AIM all day long, so you create an AIM profile website or, more adventurously, an AIM exploit. For you this may be technically engaging and challenging, requiring plenty of on-the-fly learning. Let's say your tool becomes popular, and the ad revenue from your site nets you some nice income. Great! But will you feel like you can tell colleges about your tool? Maybe not, if, upon reflection, you feel that it's too childish or too unsavory.