Thoughts on dropping out to do a startup

I'll second the "keep studying" part. After high school and summers during college, I worked at a wonderful startup. Software was a big part of what they were doing, but hardware was the real innovation and everybody there except me was a hardware guy. By my second year I was giving architecture presentations to the client, because who else was going to do it? At one point I contemplated just dropping out and going to work because I'd be coming in at a higher salary than if I graduated and went somewhere else. I spent the summers grinding at that company, spent the school year doing projects on the side, and frankly blew off school because who cared about GPA when you had all that experience?

It's been five years since I graduated college, and to this day I regret not spending that part of my life focusing on that part of life. Fact of the matter is that I realized the things I genuinely enjoyed hacking (compilers, operating systems) had all been done in the 1980's, and I had no interest in all the web stuff that was being done now. At the same time, anything else I might have wanted to do was closed off because of my college grades. You don't realize at 18-19 how much your college grades matter, especially if you wander outside the tech field.

I'm sure lots of kids are more responsible than I was at that age. They can balance hobby projects along with acing classes. But if you're not one of those people, then I suggest either doing school or doing a startup, but not trying to do both at the same time and letting both suffer. There is plenty of time in life for entrepreneurship. And frankly, outside the little Silicon Valley bubble, your chances at starting a successful business will be greatly enhanced by the signaling devices you can earn by focusing single-mindedly on school.

I do always like to point out the irony of the fact that Peter Thiel graduated from Stanford UG and Stanford Law, clerked for a Circuit judge, then went to go work for an investment bank. He was almost thirty by the time he started his first venture! Life is long, the only thing you're rushing towards is death. :D

Care to elaborate? :)

Thanks everyone for the replies. My logic is: I learned everything I know about programming on my own (specifically, almost exclusively from the internet), and I am dying to get to SV, get some industry experience, and hopefully soon start my own company (me and my brother hope to eventually apply to YC together, he's got big ideas too). I spend my spare time working on those "undergraduate hacker projects" pg mentions, but I would be regardless (possibly more so if I wasn't in college)

I'm loading up on CS theory classes this semester in and the next semester, because I do appreciate the importance of them, so if I do drop out I'll have that mostly covered. I really feel like 3 more years of mostly fulfilling degree requirements will only delay me, I'm not learning anything from the applied CS courses I take.

The internship is at Facebook, if that matters.

I never felt like I was doing my best at college. After my first internship at a large software company, I didn't understand why people had told me to stay in school for as long as I could. I actually wanted to start working! So, a year before graduating, I dropped out and moved from Wisconsin to California.

I worried at first that my lack of a degree would make it hard for me to find a job in the Bay Area, but the market is incredible right now. If you're good enough, it doesn't matter if you have a degree. I managed to find a great job with people I have fun working with. Sometimes I forget I'm getting paid for it.

Reader, your mileage may vary. College is great, but it's not for everyone. I got a lot out of my three years (especially studying abroad -- if you can afford it, do it), but I knew I was ready for something else. The other path turned out great for me.

And unless you're Gates or Zuckerberg (protip: you're almost definitely not), that college degree is going to be infinitely more valuable to you than anything you might come up with while in college.

A lot of people think that it was because he dropped out that Zuck was so successful, but IIRC, during Startup School 2012 he said that Facebook hit 1 million users before he dropped out. So unless you're coming up with the next Facebook (and you're almost definitely not), dropping out is a boneheaded move.

Your startup can fail at any time before people give two shits about it (and most do, quite quickly), but a good degree from a quality university will stay with you for life.

If you are not American, do not drop out. You will have issues obtaining a US work visa without a uni degree, i.e. you cannot go to Silicon Valley, i.e. you will be at a disadvantage.