The “Anti-Scholarship”: Kids Paid to NOT Attend College?

As countless high school students across the country vie for a finite amount of college scholarships, 24 have earned what is being billed as the “Anti-Scholarship.”

Mark Zuckerberg (shown with Robert Scoble) dropped out of Harvard to creat Facebook. The 20 Under 20 Fellowship will give other students the same opportunity.

Instead of receiving assistance with the huge financial burden that accompanies a college education, each of two dozen academically successful students has been rewarded with $100,000 to not attend college.

The product of San Francisco businessman and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, the 20 Under 20 Fellowship is designed to encourage students to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Each fellow will be granted two years and $100,000--during which time they will not attend college--to develop a project and bring it to market. Thiel selected the winners based solely on their proposals.

The 20 Under 20 Fellowship has irked many in the academic establishment, who scoff at the notion of long-term business success without an education. Thiel’s critique of the post-secondary educational system, which often produces graduates strapped with crushing debt, likewise hasn’t won him many friends in academia. He can, however,  point to his $500,000 initial investment in a project brought to him by a Harvard dropout. That investment, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, is now worth billions.

Critics claim that cases like Facebook are the exception to the academic rule, although Thiel has encouraged critics to use a wait-and-see approach before slamming 20 Under 20.

Fellowship winners have declined opportunities to attend prestigious universities such as Carnegie Mellon and Princeton.

Article by Jason Tomaszewski, EducationWorld Associate Editor
Education World® 
Copyright © 2011 Education World