Jobs did matriculate at Reed. He was allowed to hang about and audit on campus for quite a long time after he formally dropped out, though. The problem, though

Jobs did matriculate at Reed. He was allowed to hang about and audit on campus for quite a long time after he formally dropped out, though. The problem, though, is that increasing US college costs increasingly rule out going to college to find yourself and maybe leaving without a degree. An increasing proportion of undergraduates must graduate in a timely fashion, with a degree that employers care for, or else they'll be crushed by undischargeable college debt for the foreseeable future. Obviously this wasn't a risk for Gates or el Zuck, but they're increasingly less typical in this.