[brockwhittaker]

As someone who also dropped out, I think college will always be there for Simon. You go to college to become employable. I learned far more on the job than in school—and dropping out didn't hinder me becoming a good engineer—it expedited it.

Go back to college when you're older and then study something you'll appreciate learning. Hungry kids like this who want to start making stuff in the real world should do just that.

[keithwhor]

An undergraduate degree won't teach you to be a good engineer any more than it will teach you to be a good executive, or dentist, or doctor. It's why Waterloo's co-op program is almost universally regarded as the best training in the industry. I'm not surprised working in the industry expedited your growth as an engineer and it's a shame more schools don't adopt Waterloo's model. I have plenty of complaints about academia in general, but that's for a different thread. :)

The argument here is primarily that college is a unique experience that you don't really get to go back to and, in this specific case, the investment remaining is minimal. I can wax poetic about socialization and being young and a whole load of other things, but college is really just what you make of it. It is entirely within somebody's power to make their last remaining year of college enjoyable in the same way they have the capacity to make their first year in the workforce enjoyable.

Simon can do whatever he likes. The wonderful thing about his situation is that there are no bad options. That's when decisions are truly difficult, when you're maximizing EV between things that have unpredictable upside. I'd say -- from a pure EV perspective -- the downside of not having a degree (likely permanent) exceeds the upside of starting in the work force 8mo early (job offer effectively fungible, just have to wait 8mo). The scenario in which this would flip would be if the upside was an order of magnitude or more larger; like double-digit early equity in a promising company with traction that's starting YC.