Prince's Blog

Dropping Out of Oxford University

Ironically, I'm writing this post a few hours after watching Paul Graham speak live at the Oxford Union (thanks Daniel for adding me as a guest). Ironic because PG believes students should NOT drop out.

Anyways, I just sent my rustication email (Oxford speak for suspending your studies). I will be working full time for a start-up. Thanks Konrad @ Hummingbird for introing me to them.

Hope this short post helps people considering dropping out to reason about their choice.

Things I liked about Oxford and why you should (probably) stay

There are undoubtedly many great things about going to university, specifically Oxford. Here are some:

These are your last few years before you actually have to grow up. You can afford to be stupid and immature until you graduate (and most people at Oxford are, including me). It's a great time to experiment and figure out who you are and what you care about.

Oxford is also a beautiful town, especially during Trinity Term (summer). The architecture, the libraries, the river, the meadows, etc. It's very unique obviously and has a lot of history that you couldn't find anywhere else.

Some people would also benefit from the tutorial system, where you discuss the subject you are studying with a great academic.

Anyways, there are really a lot of good reasons to go to university. You can probably think of more / reflect back on why you applied to Oxford in the first place.

How I thought about dropping out

For context, I studied undergraduate maths @ Wadham College, University of Oxford, and I'm dropping out before sitting my prelim exams (the exams students take in their 1st/freshman year). I took a gap year between high school and university and worked in venture capital @ Entrepreneurs First.

That job put me in a very unusual/fortunate position: I learned a lot about the 'real' world before university even started. Being one of the youngest people to work at EF ever came with a lot of credibility + my network exploded, which meant it was very easy for me to get a job at a start-up. I was even working at start-ups while studying for my degree.

Additionally, I've always felt unnaturally more motivated and ambitious than everyone around me. I started feeling this even when I was 7 years old playing Minecraft, Call of Duty, and then chess, then during school with exams, and now with my career. It's obvious to me that I want to accelerate towards my goals as fast as possible, and that's one of the most important things to me.

I actually enjoyed Oxford for the most part (though I'll mention the things I didn't like later). The reasons I decided to drop out were:

This is also my answer to PG: I think his advice doesn't consider the fact that I don't care that much about my college years, and that my desire to accelerate towards my already very ambitious goals trumps everything else.

The reason I decided to join a start-up instead of founding one is because I haven't found a co-founder that I feel compelled to work with. I also think it's worthwhile seeing what a really phenomenal company looks like before you start your own (but this is a different topic).

The decision wasn't all logic though. I did think a lot about missing friends and missing out on the social aspect of life. There was a period of a few days where I felt really anxious about everything and was considering just staying for the degree. I was seeing this girl who I really liked spending a lot of time with, and it felt quite uncomfortable giving all of that up because it was the first time I had something like it. I've also moved around schools a fair bit and haven't just settled down with a core group of friends before, and I was sort of hoping that I'd do so in uni.

But I realised that my ambition and will to achieve my goals trump everything else. If I want to reach my goals in the timeframe I have, then I can't afford to be at uni. These things come with a lot of sacrifice and risk, and I decided I'm willing to take that.

On the risk part, I think dropping out is not actually that risky for me in terms of my career. Actually, I think EV-wise it's probably better because I'm joining a company I think will do very well, and being an early employee is great signal. Also, I want to found anyways, so that doesn't matter so much. I think the risky part is considering other aspects of life as a whole. I'm basically turning away from a normal phase in life that most people in the West go through (your college years), which means turning away from friends, relationships, immaturity, etc. This might turn out really bad for me. I could end up being very lonely and unsuccessful (career-wise) in the future. That would suck. But I'm willing to take that risk, and the prospect of things going extremely well for me some day is exciting. In the worst case, I don't think I'll ever be homeless.

Success is obviously very important to me, but I'd also like to start my own family some day in the future (maybe after my first IPO idk).

But then I also realised I'd meet a lot of people anyways and probably the core group I'm looking for will end up being people in the start-up world. So far, I've felt like I don't fit in anywhere. I think the main reason for this is because I've always focussed on other things that most people around me haven't cared about. I have a feeling working at this start-up I will find my people and my core group.

Probably most of you reading this don't relate. You will probably end up finding a core group of friends and you won't need to consider this. I think dropping out should be done by people in really exceptional scenarios.

If you're thinking about dropping out

I spoke to a lot of close friends and mentors about this decision, which I recommend everyone should do. You should really ponder the decision over a few days and even speak to some people who have dropped out. You can even speak to me (find a way to get in touch with me) if you'd like - can't guarantee I'll reply but will try my best.

You should also have very high agency and the ability to sell yourself before dropping out. If you can't convince a lot of different companies to hire you, then you probably shouldn't drop out. I think you can get lucky and have a start-up hire you and then it might fail / they might fire you, and then you'll be cooked.

The other big thing is actually considering the place you are joining. You should make sure they are really good and have great people, and that you'll be learning and have access to responsibility. A mistake people make when choosing a start-up (and maybe I'll write a separate longer post about choosing the right company): overindexing on

  1. Hype (Joining a company like Cluely would have been such a mistake; they are not doing that great anymore, though I like a lot of what Roy says and has done)
  2. Funding (I promise you, just because a company raised a lot of money from a tier 1 VC, it doesn't mean they are good. VCs do not have the same incentives as you do. They are able to take a lot more bets than you are able to. Read about the power law.)
  3. The tech

Most start-ups actually really suck. Most people (including you) will probably have very poor taste in what good looks like. Start-ups are also often very desperate. I have a friend who I think is dropping out soon to join a start-up which, from the outside, looks okay but actually is quite bad. But they'll probably be fine anyways.

Also, if you have the option, you should try to 'suspend' your studies for 1 year so that you have the option to return. I have asked the university to suspend my studies so that I can return if I want to, but I think I probably won't in any case.

Frankly, I don't think any of my friends who are currently at university should drop out. By default, you should assume you are not in a position to drop out.

How ambitious people should spend their time at Oxford

  1. Run your own events and hackathons and stuff. Create and build things from scratch.
  2. Explore as many different things as possible. New research, new degrees, new topics, etc. (I did not do this enough, I think.)
  3. Try to fit in and be normal. Go out clubbing and drinking and be a degen (not forever though). If you do fit in, then you know you don't need to drop out. If you really feel like you don't fit in, then that's maybe a sign to leave. Necessary but not sufficient!
  4. Don't over-index on founder/entrepreneurship/VC societies. This is just my opinion and experience, but I never found them that serious or useful. Most of the genuinely impressive people I've met weren't involved in them - they were busy actually working at start-ups, doing research, or building things. I also think there's a structural problem: the people organising them are students who usually haven't worked at a great start-up themselves yet, which isn't their fault, but it limits how much they can show you about what good looks like. They can be a fine place to meet people, and maybe even a co-founder, but I'd treat them as a supplement rather than the main thing. Better to spend your time on the following things.
  5. Spend a lot of time trying to meet exceptional people inside and outside of uni. If you want to work at a top start-up or VC, just cold email or cold LinkedIn message the best people. Learn to hustle and get yourself in rooms you're not meant to be in. It's easier than you think.
  6. Spend as little time on your degree as possible. Spend your time exploring your interests (unless your degree is your interest in which case spend time learning your degree).
  7. Work at companies and do research in your free time. Oxford/Cambridge holidays are very long - you can definitely find time to work at start-ups or similar.
  8. Read more books and teach yourself new things from online courses.
  9. Meet people outside of your bubble and challenge all of your assumptions. Assume you are wrong on everything and try to rediscover your beliefs.
  10. Figure out your flaws and fix them, e.g. if you suck at communication then join the debating society, if you're unfit then join a sports society, etc.

Whatever you do, just make sure to give 100% to it. If you're going to go out to party, then party hard, but make sure you can wake up the next day and give it your all when working on a new programming project or when revising. Just do your best on whatever you do.

Things I really disliked about Oxford

  1. Everyone assumes they're really smart. No one actually is (including me).
  2. Massive memetic trap of people caring about quant, IB, consulting, and similar. Just lack of original thought.
  3. People so afraid of being different.
  4. I don't like UK higher education - why do I have to choose a specific degree? I'd like to have been able to study other subjects, I think, like in the US system.
  5. General lack of ambition and drive to do great things.
  6. There are actually, on average, not that many interesting people. You can optimise your final year of high school to do great on the Oxbridge interview/entrance exam and get in while actually not being very good at your subject and not being that interested in it. Great people sometimes get rejected, not great people often get accepted.
  7. Too much of a focus on raw memorisation in my course. You can probably get a 2.1 by just memorising all the theorems and proofs in my degree (and there aren't actually that many).
  8. I went to a posh public school (on financial aid) and there's still a sense of elitism here, which I realised recently I really don't like. It doesn't feel that meritocratic, to be honest.
  9. Food is so bad.
  10. Rent is high.

Probably a lot of other things I don't like.

Conclusion

Sorry to anyone I've annoyed with these opinions. I'm sure I'm wrong about a decent chunk of them.

Anyways, hopefully some of those messy thoughts were useful to someone. Mostly writing this so I can reflect back in the future.

Oxford really isn't all that. Actually, nothing is really all that. Everything looks cool and interesting from the outside and it's actually just super fucking lame on the inside lol.