Is it possible to start college fresh after dropping out?

What options in life are available to a 19-year-old college student?

• Background: I am a second year computer/software engineering student who is having questions about the future. As of the start of this year I have not paid very much attention to school and have attened roughly 30-40% of assigned lectures. Despite that my total gpa from first year and this first semester is around a 3.6 which is not great but also not terrible. The reasong for my absences has been my total lack of motivation to go to school. I do not find the time I spend during lectures rewarding in the slightest and the reason why my marks are somewhat tolerable is due to the time I invest in my 'spare time' learning the topics I should be learning at school. I am very passionate about all things related to computers and especially software design and engineering. I spend a lot of my free time reading blogs, articles, quora, and journals about technology. I read about both the technical aspects and also the business aspects of many platforms, companies, services, etc. The truth is I would love to drop out of college and pursue a start up prototype that I have been developing all semester along side my studies. Even if this idea were to fail I believe I would find much more value interning/apprenticing at a semi-early stage start-up in my area. (Finding one that would take me on would probably be difficult). The caveats to the last part is that I am only 19 and besides some independant web developement for local businesses and small scale freelance software projects I do not have very much on my resume to reflect the actual skillset I have attained. Another big issue is I have no support from family to drop out of school (I am the first one in my family to attend college) and all my friends that I grew up with are college kids who find the idea of dropping out absurd. My peers completely shot down my idea of dropping out and stated that I will never achieve anything satisfiable career wise if I do that. The way I see it is I have a burning passion for technology, a lot of ambition to work in the field and am very comfortable and resouceful when it comes to learning the skills required (and learning them right) on my own. Any insight into what options I have available to me would be EXTREMELY appreciated. I am not sure if I can truly force myself through the remaining two years (I planned to finsih this school year) of college unless people with much more experience in tech industry think it is really my best option.

• Answer:

  Perhaps your best option would be to take a gap year and see if there is potential in the startup company you are pursuing. A year off will keep your options open in terms of college enrollment but also give you time to do what you want to do and find your bearings in life. The important thing to note is that if you start a company you have to go all the way, and in many cases some professional experience, even if it's just a failed startup, could prove to be far more valuable than any sort of CS degree. Your choice should also depend on what school you're going to. If you go to Harvard, dropping out may not be smart as your startup can be pursued during the school year with similarly brilliant kids, but if you go to a local state school or someplace without a good CS program, then dropping out to do something entrepreneurial would make more sense. Overall it's your life, and your choices are your own. If you are unhappy in school and just want to be an entrepreneur, I'd really encourage you to go for it and see where the wind takes you - it may well be a billion-dollar enterprise. And the thing with school that's different from startups is that it's never too late to go back. If you don't act on an idea, your chance could go away forever. I am also a student right now and I am working on a startup company. I'm not a developer, so I just spend all my time writing business plans and contacting people who could be interested in working with me/investing in my company. It works easily around my rather pathetic academic workload, which isn't challenging in the least. The only reason I'm staying in school is because I believe I can handle both aspects, and I strongly encourage you to do the same if you can. That's just my two cents. But with your passion and your ambition I'd say you're destined for something great either way.