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Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
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Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#2I'm still a freshman at university. Is taking time off to pursue a startup a good idea? If somebody has a certain amount of dedication, it's possible to leave school, succeed in a startup, come back to school and graduate. What's holding us back?
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#3I'm still a freshman at university. Is taking time off to pursue a startup a good idea? If somebody has a certain amount of dedication, it's possible to leave school, succeed in a startup, come back to school and graduate. What's holding us back?
I regretted not taking a year off from school. I think the timing depends more on the stage of your business, rather than when you're graduating.
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#4I'm still a freshman at university. Is taking time off to pursue a startup a good idea? If somebody has a certain amount of dedication, it's possible to leave school, succeed in a startup, come back to school and graduate. What's holding us back?
I am a sophomore at the moment.
Over the course of my freshman year I launched three sites that tanked - along with my GPA.
But I guess I was lucky that high GPA and good job was never really an option for me so I kept trying new stuff hoping something would get enough traction to sideline college totally. With the launch of my start-up couple months ago I hit that partial success I was looking at.
I am just in a helpless state of doing my own thing and not caring much about college. I still haven't dropped out or taken a year off but I plan my day around my venture rather than classes. Sticking with the minimum 12hrs is helpful.
Being in college in and of itself isn't a bad thing. You can work tirelessly on your venture across the desk from someone else working tirelessly on a school paper.
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#5This is one question only you can answer. In my opinion, if you have to ask, then you should stay in school for the time being.
In "A Student's Guide to Startups," Paul Graham writes:
"...Our official policy now is only to fund undergrads we can't talk out of [leaving college]. And frankly, if you're not certain, you should wait. It's not as if all the opportunities to start companies are going to be gone if you don't do it now."
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#6It depends on your mindset. I had fully intended to complete my undergrad while working part-time and then create a startup or pursue a masters.
Instead, my health forced me to drop one of my activities, and it ended up being my schooling. It was stressful, but at this point I am glad I chose to drop my college courses. I would not have gained the experience I have now and my income and work history would have remained relatively stagnant. I would potentially have been forced to move back to the country and live with my parents while I re-gained my health. I would have never worked with the people I worked with and learned about running a company this early in life if I had completed school first.
In the end, it worked to my advantage. In my case, I realized that a degree is something you can get at any time (I still fully intend to complete my CS degree in the future). Work experience and opportunities are harder to come by. For someone else, college (especially a prestigious school) may provide the opportunities I had to look outside for. It all depends on your mindset, your social skills, your location, and your technical/business skills.
In short: no one can really answer this for you. You need to consider your goals, your current opportunities, and the opportunities your current course of action may present to you in the future.
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#7The short answer: no.
It becomes diminishingly difficult to go back to school as you get older. The same applies for doing a startup, unfortunately. The difference is that you can generate income while building a startup. It's more difficult to get investors to pay you to go to college. Thus, finish.
To make your task easier, here's my rule-of-thumb formula for determining the difficulty level for finishing college or creating a startup:
(log(m+1) + w^2 + c + s) x log(y+1), where m is any mortgage, in dollars, w is the number of wives, c is the number of children, s is yourself, and y is your age, in years.
To give you an idea: the average 20 year old has a difficulty factor of about 1.3. A 30 year old with a family and a mortgage is about 6 and a 40 year old in the same boat is about 15. YMMV.
Good luck.
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
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Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#9"If you do have to leave grad school, in the worst case it won't be for too long. If a startup fails, it will probably fail quickly enough that you can return to academic life. And if it succeeds, you may find you no longer have such a burning desire to be an assistant professor." - How to Start a Startup
That article basically made me question the premise of continuing on with my Electrical Engineering degree. During school, I was fascinated by social networks and dividents of collective capability and genius; so I dropped out of school to learn new web programming languages, marketing and business. Then, a few months ago, I finally let my social network out to the public. It was, and continues to be, a thrilling experience.
At this age, we have less responsibilities and a more flexible timetable than we may ever have again. I say leave college; if your startup fails, you can always go back.
Re: Still in college? Is it a good idea to take time off to pursue a startup?
#10its just ur life journey ! its up to you if to take a bus or a train!
Good idea or not is depended on who u ask! Important is what wd u like to do now!