The Most Valuable Education
Every student in every field of study works on a project, whether that is an engineering challenge, a painting, or a paper. These types of endeavors bring out the best in a student. During my time in college my engineering projects paid the biggest dividends. But college is not where I learned the most. I grew the most during my time at [Y Combinator](http://ycombinator.com/). Y Combinator grows and develops some of the most skilled people in the industry. If you were to choose between someone who recently graduated from college or someone who finished Y Combinator, you should choose the person who was a part of Y Combinator even if the startup he or she was a part of failed. Y Combinator can produce in 10 weeks a better, more well rounded person than a few years of education. How is this possible? It is because the people who are accepted to Y Combinator aspire to build successful companies. What they are working on is the core of what they are. They are working on their own interest. But because they are running a company they must become generalist, develop communication skills with the team, leadership skills as the company grows, resilience in trying times, and many other skills. The people coming out of Y Combinator are better because they have more at stake. So why don't universities take this model in the development of education. It only takes 10 weeks to significantly develop a person. And the person is already paying for living expenses! Drop a semester requirement, encourage students to start a company and make an investment in the company itself. The worst thing that could happen is the company fails and the student goes right back to finishing the degree, and the best is that a successful company is born! Schools would be judged based on the quality of companies produced, not the number of students graded. Maybe the idea would work, maybe it wouldn't. I don't see it working on a Ph. D. level. I'm sure there are more holes in the theory. But to me it seems like something worth trying.