[The Editors' Verdict] The Common High School Graduate and the Rare High School Graduate

Altman, Creator of ChatGPT, Dropped Out of Stanford
A High School Graduate Leading Innovation
In Korea, Top Students Drop Out to Enter Medical School

Among last year's financial holding company chairpersons, Yoon Jong-kyu, chairman of KB Financial Group, who received the highest salary, and Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, one of the most notable entrepreneurs in the world today, share one thing in common: they both have a high school diploma as their highest level of education. Chairman Yoon graduated from Gwangju Commercial High School and started his career as a banker. Sam Altman dropped out of Stanford University. Both entered the world and began working with a high school education as their final academic credential. Although both are high school graduates, there is a subtle difference between their cases. Chairman Yoon is a rare example of a high school graduate. There are not many high school graduates among CEOs of major Korean conglomerates. On the other hand, Altman is a common example of a high school graduate.

In the U.S. advanced information technology (IT) industry, entrepreneurs who dropped out of college and have a high school diploma as their highest education are common. Bill Gates, often called the richest person in the world, dropped out of college. Steve Jobs, who fiercely competed with Gates in the industry and revolutionized the world with the iPhone, also dropped out of college. Jobs once said at a Stanford University graduation ceremony that the best decision he ever made in his life was to drop out of college early. This was said by the founder of a company considered the best in the world, delivering a speech to some of the world's top university graduates. It might have been a joke. The students laughed. But from the students' perspective, it was a very impactful statement.

Stanford is a school strong in information technology (IT). Yet, there are many successful college dropouts in the advanced technology field. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, also did not complete college. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison were born in the 1950s. One might think this was a trend of the past. However, college dropouts have continued to dominate the advanced information technology industry. For example, Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, was born in the 1970s and is a college dropout. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, also dropped out of college. He was born in the 1980s. Austin Russell, founder of Luminar, who developed LiDAR, a core technology for autonomous vehicles, and became the world's youngest billionaire at age 25, attended Stanford for only three months before dropping out. Russell, a genius who memorized the periodic table at age two, was born in the 1990s. Dylan Field, founder of Figma, a design tool company acquired by Adobe for $20 billion last year, is similar. Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum, one of the leading cryptocurrencies, was also born in the 1990s and is a high school graduate.

In the U.S. advanced technology industry, there is even an atmosphere that encourages dropping out. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk and made a fortune, established a foundation that provides $100,000 startup grants to young talents. One of the conditions for receiving the money is to drop out of school. Elon Musk completed college but registered for a PhD program at Stanford and declared "there is nothing more to learn" just two days later before starting his own business. At this point, one might think that dropping out of college is a prerequisite for success.

Many students from prestigious Korean universities also drop out. In 2020, 893 students from the so-called SKY universities (Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University) in natural sciences dropped out. In 2021, 1,096 students, and last year, 1,421 students. The number of dropouts from prestigious Korean universities in natural sciences continues to rise. Most drop out because they hope to retake the college entrance exam to enter medical school. ChatGPT, created by Sam Altman, a Stanford computer science dropout born in 1985, is changing the world. What are the approximately 1,000 equally smart Korean natural science students who have dropped out doing at Sam Altman's age?