Yes, undoubtedly top schools give a better education. In part it is due to a more rigorous curriculum in fundamentals and less vocational as lower-end schools tend to be. It's also because of distinctly intellectual atmosphere and the fact that almost every student is very smart. The network is a side effect, though a very useful one. Of course, the prior alumni that form the backbone and that helps a lot. But also whenever you get so many smart, driven people graduating there will be enough success stories among them to create a network in itself. I am talking about the current state of ultra-competitive admissions, of course, not 40-50 years ago when it was mostly a good old boys club.
Most of these young entrepreneurs take a leave of absence to try to build a company. It's actually a fashionable thing these days, "I am on a leave of absence from [Hayward, Snodfart, etc]". However, should one of these guys fail (and plenty do) they can (and do) go back to complete their degree. It's not a high risk proposition, actually.
Well schools just test memory and if what he's offering is better than a typical education then grades wouldn't matter... even if it did, a D in his course may be equal to an A in public school =P. We would have more gates and musks around if kids were taught coding in elementary.
Yeah, amen to that. Studies have shown, that 70%~ of entrepreneurs do better, after they change the city/region/country & he is a prime example of that. ( = Musks face, when thinking about the best idea eva)
Only a tiny minority of people can extricate themselves from (and show their middle finger to) the degree, and certification game. The remainder had better toe the line if they want to earn a living. Yeah, it sucks. But it is what it is.
Why do you have to choose between "this and that". Neither "this" nor "that" is the perfect solution. A real out of the box thinker would combine the best parts of each system and have the best result. Like @BAT31 said:There are indeed a lot of people who don't have the capabilities to switch from old school to the Musk school.