Yuvi

You can do both. It sucks. But it can be done. I ran ETS out of my dorm room for many years. - Brandon Mendelson

college > startup - Allen Stern

@Allen: I can't find myself justifying 'college > startup'. Can you gimme a few reasons? - Yuvi

do both, or focus on college for now. but don't quit college. if you ever need it, you'll be sorry you did, and it becomes harder to do as you get older. - Patricia

Dude, I drove myself nuts trying to get a startup going in my senior year. Then I graduated and the next Fall the economy collapsed, but that's irrelevant. Just finish school, trust me. Oh, and don't hire your school friends unless they are co-founders/investors...leads to a lot of drama. - Neal Jansons

A good education is any day better than a startup in the longer run. If you have sights only on short term, college may not make sense. A good education opens up your mind to bigger thing and startup can always be a part of that big thing. The other way around is not possible. - Krishnan Subramanian

"A good education is any day better than a startup in the longer run." Unless you are Bill Gates. - Neal Jansons

I would stick with the education, but I would also find out if someone at the school is willing to mentor you through your startup. Many colleges provide entrepreneurial support, if yours does not, hit me up and I'll help you out. - Dan Morrill AKA Techwag

Dan has a good point. You can take biz classes and network with others who are wanting to go into similar industries as well. - Neal Jansons

I know a ton of people who bypassed college, and then found it really, really hard to go back. In fact, I don't know anyone who rued going to college. In fact, one friend went back to college after being an early Yahoo employee, and it's been kind of sad the amount of "chip on his shoulder" shit he has from avoiding college. I'm in the biz and I love startups and new technology, but I... more... - anna

where withall to start a startup now, I bet those options and interests will expand 10-fold. So give yourself a treat and get an education. More practically, an education can only add to your startup idea. - anna

On an even more practical note, investing in education is the best investment quite literally. It increases your rate. - anna

I wouldn't use Bill Gates as an example. He hires college grads. If he really believed in his path he wouldn't, right? - anna

I did my first business without college. My best friend and I were managers at a bookstore and left and opened our own. 3 years later I went back to college and graduated last year. In retrospect, though the shop survived and is still open now, with a proper education I think we would have been much more prepared out of the gate, made fewer mistakes, and had much fewer hard times. My... more... - Neal Jansons via IM

Yuvi, I won't get into the reasons to stay in college, but if you do leave for a startup, it should be heavily funded so that you have a solid job for a few years. Otherwise, there is too much benefit to the education route. You will need to remember that college/university is more about getting the degree than really learning anything. More important is that you learn how to learn things because there is so much more to learn outside of schooling. - Rob Diana