He seems smart enough to get a good job regardless. The small win of publicity probably isn't worth the loss of a diploma, especially for a senior with (presumably) only one semester left. Given the time and money he's invested in his degree, I'm not sure he'd agree that it's a "win-win."
What is the meaningful difference between a Yale degree and 7 semesters of a Yale education? If your answer is "some employers wouldn't consider you as an applicant without the proper degree" do you want to work for that sort of employer?
The meaningful difference is that you have 7 semesters of sunk cost, and can't write that you graduated on your resume. In other words, you are a drop-out. A BS is a filter that you'll find for lots of jobs (or graduate school); and although there are places that will hire you, it makes things harder than they would have been otherwise.
If you want to get a bachelors degree from another school (1) it is likely to be somewhat harder to get into another school if you've been expelled from another, (2) other schools will have a residency requirement such that you'll need a couple of years to complete a degree even though you were only months away at the original institution.
Sunk costs are sunk. Unless the marginal utility of that piece of paper is worth compromising your ideals and dropping another $20k in tuition, the sensible thing to do would be to drop out.
Given that he's already got the brand, the majority of the education, and the network of going to Yale, I'm not sure it is.
If you don't graduate you don't have the brand. He might be able to establish an independent brand with his plugin, but that is certainly more risky.
I generally don't think the Ivy league tuition compared to the differential of quality state schools is worth it when you are starting out, but in this particular instance the differential between a Yale degree and any other degree would probably be less than having to go elsewhere and end up equivalently as a sophomore/junior.
>"If you don't graduate you don't have the brand. He might be able to establish an independent brand with his plugin, but that is certainly more risky."
>"A BS is a filter that you'll find for lots of jobs (or graduate school); and although there are places that will hire you, it makes things harder than they would have been otherwise."
I would disagree with both statements.
Part of the value (really, most of the value) of attending these schools is the network that you build while there. And yes, he can always write on his resume that he attended Yale from "Sept 2009-January 2013" (if he were to drop out). I attended a top university and dropped out my last semester to pursue tech related endeavors. I have reaped enormous benefits from this decision.
Once you are accepted to a top university, 90% of the "brand"-ing is complete. If you are resourceful (as this young man clearly is), the rest will take care of itself.
With regards to your second comment, the idea of a "BS as a filter" is losing credibility at an exponential rate. It might seem counter intuitive, but a top tech employer would take a second look at a Yale dropout who wrote a popular plug-in. A majority of applicants at these firms already come from the best schools in the country. On it's own, even an ivy-league degree isn't as great of a filter as you might think. (Note: This applies to jobs with the highest concentration of ivy-league applicants)
