Sunday, May 20, 2012
$100,000 Scholarships to "Stop" College
Entrepreneur Peter Thiel (Stanford Law '92) is financing twenty $100,000 scholarships for young people who agree to "stop" their formal education for two years to pursue or join a real world project broadly related to some aspect of business, innovation or technology. See Thiel Foundation's "The 20 Under 20 Fellowships."
Thiel is a former federal judicial clerk turned securities trader turned entrepreneur (founded PayPal) turned hedge fund manager/venture capitalist (he bet big on Facebook and won). Thiel believes that the key skills for innovation are not taught very well in universities. Further, because Thiel believes we are in the midst of a serious higher education bubble, he argues that the debt incurred by students only hobbles their ability to pursue activities that would redound to the benefit of the U.S. economy. Thus, as a nation, we are stuck in a very unhealthy spot.
Thiel shares his unorthodox views with Morley Safer on tonight's 60 minutes. In the meantime, below is a preview of Thiel's views on higher education courtesy of the The Big Think.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwhiteboard/2012/05/100000-scholarships-to-stop-college.html