Did Bill Gates Really Drop Out of College?

Andrew Huberman took a leave of absence from UC Santa Barbara. He did not drop out. A leave of absence is a mechanism most universities have. Huberman says it was designed for family situations, like a pregnancy or a sick family member, so a student can leave and come back. It is distinctly different from dropping out. He was pretty close to dropping out or being forced out for poor grades and poor behavior. Fortunately, that did not happen.

People hear that Bill Gates dropped out of college, Steve Jobs dropped out of college, and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college. Huberman thinks it might have been Ryan Holiday, whom he does not know, who said people doing poorly in college should stay, because college is the one environment where the steps to the next metric of success are scripted out. A leave of absence is very different. Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg did not drop out. They took leaves of absence as an insurance policy so they could go back if they wanted to. Getting back into a system is very hard, and much harder after a complete break.

Huberman believes in formal, rigorous coursework. He is a university professor, and he says college is not perfect for everybody.