Y Combinator Introduces Early Decision Program for College Students to Start Companies Without Dropping Out

In the tech world, the valorization of college dropouts has been a persistent narrative for several decades. Pioneering figures such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg left their educational institutions early to establish successful companies and amass vast fortunes.

This ethos was further cemented through initiatives like the Thiel Fellowship, which offers substantial financial incentives for promising students to abandon college and start businesses. Similarly, Silicon Valley stalwart Y Combinator (YC) tacitly encouraged this culture, with many of its most successful alumni, including Dropbox’s Drew Houston, Reddit’s Steve Huffman, and Stripe’s John and Patrick Collison, joining the program before completing their education.

However, YC is now challenging this narrative with the introduction of a new application track called Early Decision. Designed for students who wish to establish companies but prioritize academic completion, the program allows them to apply while still enrolled, secure immediate acceptance and funding, and defer participation in YC until after graduation. For instance, a student applying in Fall 2025 could graduate in Spring 2026, then participate in YC’s Summer 2026 cohort.

YC managing partner Jared Friedman explained in the launch video that “Early Decision is tailored for graduating seniors aiming to embark on a startup journey but who also wish to complete their education first.” The accelerator did not provide additional comments.

In Silicon Valley, dropping out has long been seen as a rite of passage for aspiring founders. Programs like the Thiel Fellowship have turned it into a movement, though it’s important to note that Peter Thiel himself did not drop out but earned both undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford.

YC’s decision to introduce Early Decision represents a significant departure from this narrative of early departure as the sole or optimal path to startup success. This shift comes at a time when more young people are reevaluating both the financial burden of higher education and the sacrifices involved in staying in school.

The new program also reflects a growing awareness within YC about long-term founder outcomes. Historically, the accelerator has attracted many college-aged builders, with founders from Loom, Instacart, Rappi, and Brex all joining the program while still teenagers or in their early twenties. However, the decision to forgo education was often implied: join the program now or risk missing the opportunity.

Early Decision eliminates this pressure, offering a middle ground between academic completion and entrepreneurship pursuit. This shift could widen YC’s applicant pool to include more deliberate student founders who are committed to startup life but hesitant to forgo education to achieve it.

In its announcement, YC highlights Sneha Sivakumar and Anushka Nijhawan, the co-founders of Spur, as a success story from this approach. Spur creates AI-powered quality-assurance testing tools, and the duo applied to YC through Early Decision in Fall 2023 while still students. They graduated in May 2024, joined the Summer 2024 YC batch, and have since secured $4.5 million in funding.

YC emphasizes that the program is open to both graduating students and those earlier in their academic journey. The move suggests that YC anticipates some of the most promising founders of the future will not need to choose between college and startups; they’ll do both.

The initiative also serves to bolster YC’s competitive edge in an increasingly intense accelerator and seed funding landscape, providing students with an alternative to programs like Thiel Fellowship, Neo Scholars, Founders Inc, as well as Big Tech internships and graduate school pipelines.