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More university-age people saying no to traditional college experience

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Recommended by Deseret News

Published: Sunday, Dec. 2 2012 12:00 a.m. MST

In this Jan. 3, 2011 file photo, shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiling in San Francisco. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Apple all were started by people without college degrees.

Paul Sakuma, AP

Enlarge photo»

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  • Roughing it: Millennials are finding shelter amid financial fears

Our take: More university-age people are opting not to take the road of a college education. With a sagging job market and fear of student debt, people are embracing risk and coming up with ideas and businesses without a college diploma.

Benjamin Goering does not look like Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, talk like him or inspire the same controversy. But he does apparently think like him.

Two years ago, Mr. Goering was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, studying computer science and philosophy and feeling frustrated in crowded lecture halls where the professors did not even know his name.

I wanted to make Web experiences, said Mr. Goering, now 22, and create tools that make the lives of others better.

So in the spring of 2010, Mr. Goering took the same leap as Mr. Zuckerberg: he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco to make his mark. He got a job as a software engineer at a social-software company, Livefyre, run by a college dropout, where the chief technology officer at the time and a lead engineer were also dropouts. None were sheepish about their lack of a diploma. Rather, they were proud of their real-life lessons on the job.

Education isnt a four-year program, Mr. Goering said. Its a mind-set.

Read more about Saying No to College on New York Times.

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  • Roughing it: Millennials are finding shelter amid financial fears

Popular Comments

See all 8 comments »
Kings Court
Alpine, UT

This might work for some very talented and ambitious people in some professions, but for the most part, college provides much of the educational training for many of our jobs--especially those that require a fair degree of academic knowledge. Can you More..

  • 10:37 a.m. Dec. 2, 2012
  • Top comment
Chris0201
Oak Brook, IL

I think this is a bit misleading. The individuals who are generally successful while dropping out of college, are those who are extremely intelligent, Ivy League bound students. Just because Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and a few other individuals More..

  • 11:38 a.m. Dec. 2, 2012
  • Top comment
Hutterite
American Fork, UT

You're not going to be a zuckerberg or gates, or pro athlete. It's just not statistically going to happen. But the best route, I figure, into a good job without college or university is to go the trades route. It's always the plumbers More..

  • 12:05 p.m. Dec. 2, 2012
  • Top comment
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