Are Some Entrepreneurial Students Better Off Leaving College?

Earlier this year PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel announced a controversial fellowship to pay 24 talented students $100,000 to forgo college and become a Thiel Fellow--who "will pursue innovative scientific and technical projects, learn entrepreneurship, and begin to build the technology companies of tomorrow."

More than 400 people applied for the fellowship, 45 of whom were flown out to San Francisco to present their ideas. Of the 24 who were eventually chosen, eight have ties to the Boston area--and at least two went to MIT.

In an article published Saturday, the Boston Globe reported that former Course 6 major Jeffrey Lim is accepting the $100,000, dropping out of MIT, and joining the Thiel Foundation. The MIT Admissions blog--which heartily congratulated the students--reported that former Course 8 major Laura Deming will be following suit. Lim and Deming's bios are below, as seen on the Thiel Foundation website.

Laura Deming wants to extend the human lifespan for a few more centuries—at the very least. She started working in a biogerontology lab when she was 12, matriculated at MIT when she was 14, and now at 17 plans on disrupting the current research paradigm by changing the incentives embedded in today’s traditional funding structures. Too often, researchers design quick incremental projects to please grant-making bodies instead of taking on risky, long time horizon problems. With her fund IP Immortal, Laura plans on commercializing anti-aging research, bringing therapies out of the lab and into the market sooner.

Jeffrey Lim wants to increase the amount of voluntary exchange and cooperation in the world by revamping some of our core economic and social institutions. He believes it’s time the means of exchange caught up with the Information Age. Once he drops out of MIT, Jeffrey plans on using his fellowship to create technologies that will help people self-organize to solve social problems. He’s particularly interested in helping people protect the wealth they create from the harmful effects of inflation.

Is dropping out of MIT a good move for some entrepreneurial students? Bill Aulet, managing director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, expressed skepticism, telling the Boston Globe, "To produce innovation, you need a good foundation in science and technology. Entrepreneurial ventures are great but not good at training you in fundamental science skills."

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