Great Startup Schools?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16132

by Prrometheus • 19 years ago

2 6 19 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

In preparation for a career as a startup founder, Im looking at grad schools right now for several reasons:

1) Sharpen my skills 2) Meet like-minded people 3) Learn cool things

Obviously, number 1 is Stanford, the home of Google. And number 2 is MIT. Does anybody have good recommendations for numbers 3, 4, and 5?

npk• 19 years ago

Hmm, this is an interesting take on graduate school. I'm not convinced that graduate school is the only or best way to accomplish your goals. Why not move out to CA and join a startup?

Assuming you mean a PhD, I'll give you the following advice: If you really don't love what you're doing, graduate school hurts. Personally, it would have been hard for me to come into a program, thinking that I was going it to start a startup and not do research for the rest of my life.

A masters will certainly help your career within bigger companies, but do startups care? Does one or two more years of courses really teach you anything? I'm inclined to say no.

Finally, you realize your question is kind of absurd? If you mean a PhD, you should think about what excites you, figure out what labs are doing what you are interested in, and go work for those labs. The school is secondary. I'm sure you'll find good labs at stanford, mit, cmu, caltech and berkeley.

mattjaynes• 19 years ago

Probably UT Austin, U of Washington, and UMich Ann Arbor would be the next ones (in no particular order).

Good luck to you. I considered grad school but decided that since my ultimate goal was to do a startup, that I would just put the money from grad school into starting a business. It's been the most educational few months of my life. There's no grad school that will be as educational as joining a good startup. Be sure to read pg's articles - they are invaluable for avoiding very common mistakes.

mattculbreth• 19 years ago

I'm a Georgia Tech guy and we have a great CS program. But I'd go with the consensus here--get out there and join a startup. Maybe do that for a year, see how you like it. If you've already got startup fever in your blood going to grad school might not feel so good.

busy_beaver• 19 years ago

Netscape, YouTube and PayPal (among others) came out of UIUC.

dawie• 19 years ago

Rule number 1 - Start - Experience is the best teacher

Great Startup Schools?

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