"From talking to them, many express that these experience have focused/clarified what they hope to gain from college, intellectually and personally."

As someone who made money on the internet in my teen years, I too spent quite a bit of time thinking college was a waste. For a lot of people, I still think it's a waste of their money, just that my reasoning is different.

Everyone can benefit from college, but you really need to be in the correct mindset to succeed and take advantage of it. Academic institutions, despite the grant process, politics, etc. really are interesting places where really smart people get together to do things.

The problem I see with college is that most of the people I knew weren't ready to be there. It should not be the default life funnel that it currently is, because most high schoolers (myself included) just weren't ready to take advantage of what was there. When you're ready for it, it's worth every penny.

edit: Sorry, didn't reply to correct post with that quote.

College is broken in many ways. By definition this isn't a solution because you cannot do this for more than a tiny number of people. It's interesting that it appears desirable to return to college anyway afterwards, which suggests it's really just a resume builder and not much of an alternative at all. Still, I am always interested in anything which tries to shake up the status quo because the current college system isn't working, and the idea of just chucking more people through college really doesn't solve anything to solve our long term problems.

And in January, the unemployment rate for college grads was 3.7 percent, as opposed to 8.1 percent for those with only high school diplomas.

Those are average numbers across the board, and perhaps the opportunities that come from a high-profile program like the Thiel Fellowship outweigh those for the average college student. But at least for now, the data shows college is the more lucrative path.

??

Correlation does not imply causation.