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Key Takeaways Instead of obtaining a summer internship and graduating with a guaranteed seat at a top firm, an increasing number of top-tier students are trying to join the AI race with their own startups.
Some students said that they have learned more in one month of creating their startup than they did during an entire semester of college.
Founders are split on if they should drop out of college to build their companies.
Wall Street is a goal of the past. High-achieving students at top universities are turning away from traditionally high-paying career paths and going all-in on entrepreneurship instead.
One example is Princeton University student Charles Muehlberger, who recently told The Wall Street Journal that instead of accepting a summer internship at a major tech firm or a rocket engineering company, he chose to travel to San Francisco and found an AI startup. His business, Conifer, seeks to bring open-source AI models offline and make them locally available on devices.
Muehlberger believes strongly in his startup, to the extent that he took a gap year from Princeton to work on it. “Those who are building now get a voice in what the future looks like,” he told the Journal.
Muehlberger is one of a growing number of students who have opted to take the road less traveled. Instead of obtaining an internship in tech, finance or consulting and graduating with a guaranteed seat at a top firm, these students are trying to join the AI race now by creating their own businesses.
Silicon Valley is keeping pace. An increasing number of programs in the Valley are geared towards these startup students, providing free housing, mentorship and networking, per the Journal. These students are so immersed in their startup dreams that they may drop out of college to pursue them full-time when the summer is over. Some told the Journal that they have learned more in one month of creating their startup than they did during an entire semester of college.
Recent college graduates are facing a tough job market. Fields like law and software engineering face the threat of automation, causing students to create opportunities for themselves.
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