Culture
From UnCollege to Less College
A San Francisco startup that hoped to replace college with real-world experience switches to a middle path: an intensive, post-high-school “gap year.”
Dale Stephens got into the education business as the ultimate outsider. “Unschooled” since age 12—meaning he basically homeschooled himself—he dropped out of Hendrix College in Arkansas in 2011 to accept a $100,000 fellowship from Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who has compared Ivy League schools to exclusive nightclubs (and is now a member of President-elect Trump’s transition team).
Stephens put the money toward UnCollege, a startup whose very name challenged the desirability of a university degree. “I believe higher education is broken,” he wrote at the time. “College fails to empower us with the skills necessary to become productive members of today's global entrepreneurial economy.”