Dropping out and dreaming on

The Thiel Foundation “thought that we should identify some talented young people and encourage them to pursue their passions in science and technology and about how we could get innovation accelerated in this country,’’ Thiel said yesterday in an interview.

He said he knows many students are graduating with huge debt and that it is hard to launch a company with that burden. “We hear about this all the time where people can’t take any sort of risky job. They have to get paid a lot because they have all these debts to pay off. You can’t really start a business because you’re servicing all this debt. Even with financial aid packages you end up with a lot of debt.’’

The story of Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of Harvard at 20 to expand Facebook has created an entire generation of competitive dreamers. And who was Facebook’s first outside investor, whose $500,000 stake is reportedly worth $1.5 billion today? Peter Thiel.

“If the people who started Facebook had waited to graduate, somebody else would have done a social network,’’ he said. “Facebook started in 2004. By 2006, it would have been too late.’’

Thiel, who cofounded PayPal in 1998, is himself not only a college graduate (Stanford, class of 1989), but also a 1992 graduate of Stanford Law School. But now he talks almost dismissively about college education.

“I think it’s best for people to actually try to think about the future and not default to education,’’ he said. “I’m in favor of learning, but I don’t think our education system can live up to the great expectations that are set.’’

Most of the Thiel fellows are focusing less on complaints like Thiel’s about college and more on the opportunities he is offering. David Luan, 19, of Worcester, had secured a full ride to Yale, which he loved and called the “perfect choice.’’ But then he got a call from the Thiel Foundation.