Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams • Hacker News Board

Re: Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams

#31

Post by falsestprophet » Sun, Sep 16, 2012, 4:38 PM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #21

onetimeuse001 wrote: post #9

As someone said, these are bright people and will probably make it, if not they can still go back to college. But for 99.99% of "smart people," college is probably the best bet. Even if you had a few $million, that can go very easily over the course of decades with a few bad investment decisions, medical bills or whatever. A safe job usually provides a steady income for decades and decades. Thiel is set for life and…

> But for 99.99% of "smart people," college is probably the best bet. Perhaps not. In the USA: Of the top 1% earners, 49% have a postgraduate education[1]. From what I could find, There are 600,000 doctors and 11,000,000 lawyers in the USA which could be said to cover the vast majority of the 49% group. Of the remaining 51%, 23% have a college degree leaving 27% without a college education. Unless you are looking at…

> Of the remaining 51%, 23% have a college degree leaving 27% without a college education.

Consider that some individuals who are members of households in the top one percent of income earners and have not completed a four year college degree will have married a high income earner who has completed a college or postgraduate education.

Re: Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams

#32

Post by scott_s » Sun, Sep 16, 2012, 7:02 PM UTC

001sky wrote: post #17

cmagahern wrote: post #4

The last few paragraphs of the article really brought an interesting light onto the subject. Most of the people I know who left college to start a business or to work somewhere in Silicon Valley had a remarkably privileged upbringing. They never had the worries about the financial or temporal investment into an education or any experience taking risks. I'm not trying to berate people who drop out of college for these…

While there is a of truth in this statement, one notable exception is worth mentioning: steve jobs. who apparently quit school in part because he thought college was too much for his familiy to pay for. But I think you are more right than wrong in your observation. There are a lot of soft social skills and such that you need for business that could be learned in school. May not be news to some depending on there back…

Jobs grew up in Silicon Valley, and had connections to people in the industry that helped in the beginning.

Re: Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams

#33

Post by randomdata » Mon, Sep 17, 2012, 12:34 AM UTC

falsestprophet wrote: post #31

randomdata wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But for 99.99% of "smart people," college is probably the best bet. Perhaps not. In the USA: Of the top 1% earners, 49% have a postgraduate education[1]. From what I could find, There are 600,000 doctors and 11,000,000 lawyers in the USA which could be said to cover the vast majority of the 49% group. Of the remaining 51%, 23% have a college degree leaving 27% without a college education. Unless you are looking at…

> Of the remaining 51%, 23% have a college degree leaving 27% without a college education. Consider that some individuals who are members of households in the top one percent of income earners and have not completed a four year college degree will have married a high income earner who has completed a college or postgraduate education.

Sure, but it goes the other way too. Melinda Gates comes to mind as a prominent example. She has a degree, but Bill, who made the family's fortune, does not.