Tech's new pitch for college: skip it
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Some of the tech industry's most influential CEOs have an ambitious message for young people in the age of AI: Skip college altogether.
The big picture: Elon Musk, Alex Karp and Peter Thiel are challenging the four-year degree as the default path for elite talent — and, in some cases, building their own alternatives.
- Of course, critics warn those CEO-backed programs may train young people for a particular role or company without setting them up for success elsewhere.
- David Deming, an economist and the Danoff Dean of Harvard, told Axios: "It's in a company's interest to train a person in a very specific thing to do things their way. They don't really care about giving you skills that are valuable outside the company."
State of play: Musk, Karp and Thiel have each suggested that four-year degrees are not worth the investment.
- "I think college is basically for fun and to prove that you can do your chores, but they're not for learning," Musk said in 2020.
Zoom in: Musk and his like-minded CEOs argue that hands-on training can provide better skills. And people might be better off building their own startups, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.
- Palantir created the Meritocracy Fellowship, which calls for students to "skip the debt" 'and "skip the indoctrination" in favor of a "Palantir degree." The four-month program can lead to full-time offers at the company. Its first class included 22 students selected from 500 applicants.
- Peter Thiel has similarly promoting the Thiel Fellowship, which was founded in 2011, pays people to build projects and startups for two years instead of attending college. It's for those "who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom," per the fellowship's website.
Reality check: Americans are still heading to college after high school in droves, data shows, despite a dip in confidence in higher education.
- Education experts tell Axios that company-run alternates have a fundamental limitation: The skills and credentials may carry far less value outside the organizations that created them.
- "It's really valuable to help you move through your career at that company," Deming, of Harvard, tells Axios. "But once you leave, nobody really gives you any credit for it."
- "You can't really monetize those skills when you leave. Whereas with a bachelor's degree, you know people know what it is."
Between the lines: These programs are also highly selective — and often attract students who were likely to succeed with or without them.
- "Chances are, those individuals would have been fine whether they attended Harvard, or they went to Palantir, or they went to UMass Amherst," said Zack Mabel, director of research at Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce.
Go deeper: College AI use spikes
