
Why I dropped out of college for Y Combinator - cj
http://brandonpaton.com/post/30530135800/why-i-dropped-out-of-school-for-y-combinator
======
jsiarto
While obviously stories like this work out for some people--I think the
general advice of dropping out of college to start a startup is a very bad
idea. First, maybe 5% of people are driven/motivated enough to actually have a
chance of making that decision work out. Second, odds are your startup will
fail and you may need to fall back on that degree to get a new job.

I would also argue that there are missed opportunities by leaving school
early. Some of my best professional relationships started at Michigan State
and they continue to help me build my career.

Also, $200K+ in student loan debt? Where the hell was he going?

EDIT: Also, why not just start the damn company while you're still in school?
I'm sorry, but I had more free time in college than I can remember and having
a side project was not a huge deal. No different than when people start their
business on the side while still maintaining their 9-5.

EDIT 2: Full disclosure: I work for MSU as an adjunct so I have a strong
financial interest in people getting their degrees (especially in STEM
fields!).

~~~
pg
_I think the general advice of dropping out of college to start a startup is a
very bad idea._

I agree. There's no rush; there will still be plenty of ideas left to work on
after college.

~~~
larrys
"plenty of ideas left to work on after college"

HN is certainly full of plenty of disclosures and comments about that pitfalls
of startups and success. (And things like what you just said above as if you
are going to tell people to drop out of college or something..) But yet people
will always focus on what they want to see, just like in a casino, which is
the winners (that's why the machines make noise). On HN, TC etc. the bells are
always ringing and the effect is quite clear. And obviously in the traditional
media as well. Everybody wants to be a superstar. And thinks they can be a
superstar or should have been a superstar. People apologetically talk about
how they have chosen to be happy instead with their little "lifestyle"
business and every now and then people acknowledge that that's ok.

This is really no different than what happens in any industry which is a
pyramid. Entertainment, sports as two examples.

People have to take reality into account when making life decisions. But I can
see how difficult that is now that there are more examples that younger people
can see of people their age being great successes.

Added: "great successes" meaning the typical trappings of success even if that
means just getting funded or even picked for YC.

~~~
brlewis
The _attempt_ to become a superstar is rewarding even if you don't make it.

------
kloncks
I dropped out of school for AngelPad too.

What I've found out is that it's never really about dropping out and the
fascination with college dropouts is nonsensical. I never went to college
expecting to drop out; the timing just made it happen. Furthermore, my lack of
a degree doesn't make me a better or more successful entrepreneur.

Dropping out isn’t an accomplishment, any more than money is a sign of
achievement. Sometimes, but not always, it’s simply a symptom of success.

~~~
pc86
I think if you were to look at all college dropouts (not just those that leave
to go to SF) you would see it's certainly not a symptom of success. There are
definitely successful people without degrees but it is the exception rather
than the rule.

It also depends on your definition of successful. By most definitions
(including mine) this guy isn't. YC may change that, but it may not. I don't
think it will have much to do with his degree, or lack thereof.

~~~
randomdata
Monetary success is an exception to begin with. Only 5% of the North American
population earn more than $90,000 per year. Leaving me curious about your
exception statement. Of the people in that top 5%, or even 1% if your data
better supports it, what does the education distribution look like?

~~~
pc86
Please take this with a grain of salt - I could only find it on Alternet[1]
and I looked for the Gallup source they're referencing but shouldn't find it.
The article is from December of 2011 as well.

In the top 1% of US households (those with an income above ~$550,000 a year
according to this article, but I've seen lower-end figures ranging from
$380-660k/yr), 72% have a college degree v. 31% of the lower 99%. "Nearly
half" of the top 1% has some form of post-graduate education v. less than 1 in
5 of the 99%.

A lot of the 1% are CEOs, licensed professionals (JDs, MDs) and Wall Street
executives, all positions the require baccalaureate or postgraduate degrees in
almost every case.

[1]
[http://www.alternet.org/story/153341/10_fun_facts_about_the_...](http://www.alternet.org/story/153341/10_fun_facts_about_the_top_1_percent?page=0%2C1)

~~~
randomdata
Thanks for the pointer. I was able to find a Gallup link:
[http://www.gallup.com/poll/151310/u.s.-republican-not-
conser...](http://www.gallup.com/poll/151310/u.s.-republican-not-
conservative.aspx)

By the numbers, it seems that having completed a high school diploma or less
puts you in better standing than having completed just a degree (27% vs 23%),
though a post-graduate degree is the clear winner.

So, it seems that if you are not willing to go through post-graduate studies
(which, I assume, is primarily limited to the professional degrees you
mentioned – MD, JD, etc.), you are slightly better off dropping out or not
going to college at all in terms of achieving success as defined by the top
1%. That is actually pretty interesting data with regards to the subject of
this thread.

------
kmfrk
It's great if Brandon got into the YC batch and can pursue his interest in the
way he thinks is the best way possible, but I don't see _anything_ in the
article that people should use as an excuse to drop out of college for.

I'm happy for Brandon, and it's a fine personal story, but the article made it
sound like "I kept procrastinating and getting bad grades, so I dropped out".

There are other ways to address a problem like that. :)

------
capkutay
I see such a significant conflict between successfully starting a managing a
company and dropping out of school, namely the fact that you constantly have
to prove your worth intelligence, and capabilities to the people around you.
Perhaps if you were like Mark Zuckerburg, clearly a top student at a top
school with a product that had already gained traction, then you could drop
out of school without creating significant reasons for people to doubt you.
But wouldn't your academic knowledge of the field you're working in be of
great use to your start up?

------
nchuhoai
I don't understand why there is this huge sentiment against Brandon's
decision. I have written about this a lot, but there is a huge bias against
people that believe that

1\. college may not be worth it for him personally 2\. college may generally
be quite overpriced/not worth it.

I'm sure it is a discussion worth having looking at the exploding prices of
college.

1\. Without being too bold, I think we can all agree that general statements
like "Everyone needs to go to college" and "No one should go to college" are
useless. Brandon knows best what he knows, what he gains from college and what
he loses by staying in it.

2\. Now, this discussion happens a lot, but there is always the same question
I ask: Would pro-college people say college is worth the 10k/degree sticker
price? 100k? 1M? 10M? Yes, college provides great value, some that can't be
quantified. Nevertheless, we live in a world with scarce resources, and making
a conjecture that for some people going to college might not be worth it
shouldn't be too far-fetched. College is being hailed as the holy grail, and I
just don't buy it as such.

I think Brandon's post shows that he clearly has thought about it and made a
decision for himself, that doesn't come by easily.

Also, Brandon, if you read this, I followed you in your footsteps, just one
semester after you :)

------
205guy
Surprised no one quoted this yet: "I avoided computer science because I heard
it’s too theoretical and non-practical." OP then enrolled in pre-med, the
epitomy of theoretical and non-practical (cramming all the anatomy and
cellular biology that make the basis of our medical knowledge, but don't
actually help you cure a patient).

I totally agree that CS is theoretical and non-practical, but why is that so
shunned? Seems like if someone wants an edge in the technology sector, they
had better understand the foundation of computation. From writing formal
grammars and understanding Turing machines all the way up to coding a compiler
and learning about security are all things I've studied and mostly forgotten,
but they help me understand the new problems I'm faced with every day.

A person who practices medicine without doing the course work, internship, and
getting the degree is a quack or charlatan or new-age healer. I'm worried a
lot of the startup scene is about making a fast buck, not making a solid
product. I don't think the tech sector is life-and-death, and it certainly
doesn't need PhDs or a licensing board. But you'd think people who want to
excel in the field would study it.

------
jordn
The startup scene in Boston is actually pretty amazing. I haven't got to
experience living in silicon valley but I got to spend a year at MIT and
compared to Cambridge, UK it really is astounding how strong an
entrepreneurial network there is there to take advantage of. That said, it
might be harder to find in a big place like BU where not everyone is
technically focused.

------
alecdibble
This is the only part of the article I don't agree with:

    
    
        In the end, it wouldn’t have benefitted me to stay in school longer, and Y Combinator was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
    
    

How do you know there would be no benefit to finishing your degree? It may be
beneficial in the short term. However, you have (hopefully) many years to live
and making a guess like that is silly, in my opinion.

While I think it is admirable that you got into Hacker News and are following
your dream, I think there is something to say about learning to focus and get
decent grades, even if you are not into it 100%. It shows that you can stick
to some form of an obligation and follow through with something that you may
not want to do.

I can't remember exactly which VC said this but here is a paraphrase: Not
making it through college when something new comes up doesn't bode well when I
give you a ton of money for a long term commitment. Will "something else" come
up during that time?

~~~
tlogan
But you can always come back and finish your college. Why do we have this
notion all things you need to learn needs to fit in first 25 years of your
life?

------
drumdance
I think there's a huge disruption coming in education. For every Brandon there
are 10 others who maybe don't want to create a startup themselves, but could
benefit from a series of internships at startups and larger companies along
with a structured reading list.

A couple years ago my last company hired an intern who was about to start 10th
grade. He wrote surprisingly good code and learn a lot in the process.

------
e12e
I'm guessing there was a business plan (if yc threw money after them) -- but I
don't see it. No ads, no subscription fees. That leaves just selling
aggregated consumer data, and doing trend research?

Yeah, I'd rather host my private data somewhere they stay private.

------
jakebellacera
Nice, I'm glad you could find something that makes you happy. Just make sure
that you keep at it. You chose not to pursue an education, so if you truly
want to be successful, make your resume proof that you know what you're doing.

------
concernedctzn
"My GPA was suffering, despite lots of Adderall, and I had skipped half of the
lectures I was supposed to attend."

Wow, I'm not so sure you want to publicly advertise abusing prescription
drugs.

------
tehdik
Why not just take a year off instead of dropping out?

~~~
spartango
This is actually a good question. There's no reason that you have to
permanently give up formal education to go start a company (or anything else
for that matter).

I made exactly this choice (slated to take 2 years off, but same idea), and
definitely see myself returning to school in the future. Perhaps when I go
back I'll be a wiser person. An even better student. My school says it'll be
happy to have me back.

In the meantime, I can pursue my crazy ideas and try things, taking risks I
might not like to as I age. Building something whose time has come.

The relevant chorus to the Byrds' song "Turn Turn Turn" goes:

"To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)

There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)

And a time to every purpose, under Heaven"

------
hans_olo
> drops out of school

> starts "facebook but for X" startup

way to go

~~~
mlwarren
It's certainly not curing cancer or inventing the next generation of
transportation. I guess this might be part of the "start small" realization?

It seems like a lot of the college dropouts opting for startups are ultimately
limiting themselves from doing the sort of hard problem solving middle-school
Brandon wanted to do. I think some level of formal education would be
necessary to cure cancer.

