Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 167 guests, and 10 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    parentologyco, Smartlady60, petercgeelan, eterpstra, Valib90
    11,410 Registered Users
    March
    S M T W T F S
    1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30
    31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1
    I
    indigo Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    I
    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1

    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    This will be the fourth batch. I wonder how one evaluates the success of the program so far.


    "To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell
    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1
    I
    indigo Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    I
    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1
    You asked a good question for which I had no answer... until now: Success has been measured in both economic and societal benefits.
    “By our most recent count, Thiel Fellows have generated more than $115 million in economic activity, including $64 million raised in venture funding; $28 million in product revenue; and nearly $24 million raised from company exits, grants, partnerships.. They have created more than 50 new companies and more than 220 jobs at those enterprises,” said Jim O’Neill, cofounder of the Thiel Fellowship and partner and chief operating officer at Mithril Capital Management. “The Thiel Fellowship has impacted the lives of many more people than just the fellows and their employees. They have also developed products that help other people get better jobs, that empower students and teachers, and that energize the world. Whether a fellow starts or joins a company, researches ideas, enables social change, or does something entirely new, the common thread among all of them is how they improve not just the world, but the lives of others.”
    The 2015 application process is open, and incentivized for early submissions.

    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    This long article profiles some Thiel Fellows and raises the question of whether college is necessary for aspiring tech entrepreneurs.

    The Real Teens of Silicon Valley: Inside the almost-adult lives of the industry’s newest recruits
    By Nellie Bowles
    The California Sunday Magazine

    Quote
    PETER THIEL, the PayPal co-founder and radical libertarian, stoked San Francisco’s latest Peter Pan moment. In 2010, his foundation launched a fellowship that awards $100,000 each to 20 young people per year who skip or drop out of college. One of his slogans: “Some ideas can’t wait.” The fellowship attracted outsize attention, instantly becoming an elite brand around which other dropout teens began to rally. “The fellowship is a flag, like a beacon,” said Matin. “Even if you don’t do the fellowship, it legitimized our work.”

    Danielle Strachman, the Thiel Fellowship’s program director, seconds this notion. “Peter Thiel, PayPal — these are things [parents] understand,” she said. I met her and Michael Gibson, the fellowship’s vice president of grants, in a conference room inside the Thiel Foundation’s sleek, modern headquarters in the Presidio, a former military outpost, many of whose old whitewashed buildings have been converted into startup space. When the fellowship was announced, “it was a media maelstrom,” said Gibson. “One of the biggest fears these young people have is being unintelligible to their parents — and to everyone, really. One of the things the fellowship did was make it intelligible.”

    More than 430 people applied the first year. By 2014, thanks in part to a shortened application, that number increased to 3,100. “When the fellowship first started, it was young prodigies, geniuses,” Strachman said. “But there are so many people dropping out now, it’s more normal-looking teens.” Of the 84 fellows so far, only eight have gone back to college, and two of those later dropped out again. Alums include the founders of Streem (acquired by Box), Propeller (acquired by Palantir), and Flashcards+ (acquired by Chegg).

    Joined: Jul 2010
    Posts: 948
    D
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    D
    Joined: Jul 2010
    Posts: 948

    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    College Dropouts Thrive in Tech
    Quitting school to start a company used to be seen as risky; now an honor
    By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI
    Wall Street Journal
    June 3, 2015
    Quote
    Near the end of his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ari Weinstein was offered $100,000 to drop out of school.

    Mr. Weinstein, now 20, had grown up immersed in technology. He created a website at age 7, started a software company in high school and released an iPhone app his first week at MIT. The rest of his freshman year, he juggled classwork along with tending to the app.

    The $100,000, from a fellowship sponsored by billionaire Peter Thiel, offered Mr. Weinstein a shot at his dream: starting a company with friends. But he wrestled with the decision in the spring of 2014, worried that he was giving up on college too soon and afraid of disappointing grandparents who valued education. His mother had other concerns.

    “I thought he would miss out on the social aspects of college,” says Judy Weinstein. “It’s the bridge between childhood and adulthood, a built-in transitional time.”

    Mr. Weinstein chose the fellowship. He and a growing number of others believe they don’t need the bridge of college and are starting companies before they’re old enough to drink. In San Francisco’s Mission District, Mr. Weinstein shares a house with 11 others, including seven who also ditched college to pursue startup life.

    The college dropout-turned-entrepreneur is a staple of Silicon Valley mythology. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all left college.

    In their day, those founders were very unusual. But a lot has changed since 2005, when Mr. Zuckerberg left Harvard. The new crop of dropouts has grown up with the Internet and smartphones. The tools to create new technology are more accessible. The cost to start a company has plunged, while the options for raising money have multiplied.

    Moreover, the path isn’t as lonely. Many of the baby-faced entrepreneurs in Mr. Weinstein’s house have known each other for years, via Facebook groups, Twitter and a thriving circuit of weekend technology competitions called hackathons.

    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1
    I
    indigo Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    I
    Joined: Apr 2013
    Posts: 5,244
    Likes: 1
    This past weekend was the annual Thiel summit. The 2015 Thiel Fellows have been announced, from among 2,800 applicants: http://www.thielfellowship.org/2015/06/2015-thiel-fellows-press-release/

    The press release also announces that the program is expanding, from the original "20 under 20"... to accepting up to 30 fellows, age 22 or younger.

    Joined: Nov 2011
    Posts: 280
    M
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    M
    Joined: Nov 2011
    Posts: 280
    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    Near the end of his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ari Weinstein was offered $100,000 to drop out of school.
    In reality, being a drop-out from a HYPSM is a low-risk affair. You already have street-cred from being admitted to (channeling JonLaw), "one of those hallowed institutions." And if all else fails, you can probably go back and finish your degree. The risks are much higher for someone dropping out from State U.

    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    B
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    B
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 2,639
    Originally Posted by mithawk
    Originally Posted by Bostonian
    Near the end of his freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ari Weinstein was offered $100,000 to drop out of school.
    In reality, being a drop-out from a HYPSM is a low-risk affair. You already have street-cred from being admitted to (channeling JonLaw), "one of those hallowed institutions." And if all else fails, you can probably go back and finish your degree. The risks are much higher for someone dropping out from State U.
    Low and middle income students get very good financial aid packages from the Ivies, worth $200K or more over 4 years, and giving them up is a risk. Students from high-income families do not have this risk. If my children drop out, the money in their 529 plans is not going anywhere. And at age 24, students are considered independent, and the expected family contribution drops to zero.


    Moderated by  M-Moderator 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Testing with accommodations
    by aeh - 03/27/24 01:58 PM
    Quotations that resonate with gifted people
    by indigo - 03/27/24 12:38 PM
    For those interested in astronomy, eclipses...
    by indigo - 03/23/24 06:11 PM
    California Tries to Close the Gap in Math
    by thx1138 - 03/22/24 03:43 AM
    Gifted kids in Illinois. Recommendations?
    by indigo - 03/20/24 05:41 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5