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At least in some cases, they're being asked - or paid: http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2013/09/11/peter-thiel-promised-flying-cars-instead-we-got-caffe

At least in some cases, they're being asked - or paid: http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2013/09/11/peter-thiel-promised-flying-cars-instead-we-got-caffeine-spray/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2013/09/11/peter-thi... That aside, I find your example a bit disingenuous. It's easy to say it's the right choice when you're looking at one of the relatively small number of people who have done this successfully. But using that as the example underemphasis the fact that the vast majority who take that route don't enjoy massive successes, and most are -- according to Atlantic's sources - less financially successful than their graduating counterparts: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/the-myth-of-the-successful-college-dropout-why-it-could-make-millions-of-young-americans-poorer/273628/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/03/the-myth...

tedunangst 13y ago
Is Peter Thiel a Stanford professor stealing his own students away? How would Stanford, or any university, prevent Thiel from offering students money to drop out?
- neltnerb 13y ago
  Internal discipline? MIT explicitly forbids an academic adviser from offering employment (directly or by a company they own) to any student while they are still enrolled. Otherwise you could have a situation of "if you accept this job, I'll let you graduate". It's not hard to imagine that not having a policy like that would open Stanford up to lawsuits, if for instance a student feels compelled to work for someone in order to graduate. It might still happen, but if it is discovered I'm sure there are ways to address it.
tedunangst 13y ago
I didn't address your second point. I don't think Bill Gates's success is relevant. The question is whether students are choosing to drop out or being asked to quit. Not whether they will be successful. I picked Bill Gates as a well known example of somebody who chose to drop out. I'm sure at least one unknown classmate of Gates also dropped out and didn't achieve much, but since I don't know their name, I didn't use them as an example.
- GrinningFool 13y ago
  I did find it strangely difficult to find examples of dropouts who didn't amount to much - go figure ;)

tedunangst 13y ago

Is Peter Thiel a Stanford professor stealing his own students away? How would Stanford, or any university, prevent Thiel from offering students money to drop out?

neltnerb 13y ago
Internal discipline? MIT explicitly forbids an academic adviser from offering employment (directly or by a company they own) to any student while they are still enrolled. Otherwise you could have a situation of "if you accept this job, I'll let you graduate". It's not hard to imagine that not having a policy like that would open Stanford up to lawsuits, if for instance a student feels compelled to work for someone in order to graduate. It might still happen, but if it is discovered I'm sure there are ways to address it.

tedunangst 13y ago

I didn't address your second point. I don't think Bill Gates's success is relevant. The question is whether students are choosing to drop out or being asked to quit. Not whether they will be successful. I picked Bill Gates as a well known example of somebody who chose to drop out. I'm sure at least one unknown classmate of Gates also dropped out and didn't achieve much, but since I don't know their name, I didn't use them as an example.

GrinningFool 13y ago
I did find it strangely difficult to find examples of dropouts who didn't amount to much - go figure ;)