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Connor Zwick, 19, saws a profile for his “coco controller,” a game app for smartphones. Thiel fellowships reward young people for forgoing college to dive into practical work on ideas.

EDEN FULL should be back at Princeton by now. She should be hustling to class, hitting the books, acing tests. In short, she should be climbing that old-school ladder toward a coveted spot among America’s future elite.

She isn’t doing any of that. Instead, Ms. Full, as bright and poised and ambitious as the next Ivy Leaguer, has done something extraordinary for a Princetonian: she has dropped out.

It wasn’t the exorbitant cost of college. (Princeton, all told, runs nearly $55,000 a year.) She says she simply received a better offer — and, perhaps, a shot at a better education.

To read the original article: The Thiel Fellows, Forgoing College to Pursue Dreams - NYTimes.com