$51,718

That's it.

That's the number I've been focusing on.

It has nothing to do with my entrepreneur dreams.  Instead, it has to do with an even larger venture I'm taking this year.  It's the estimated cost of the next 9 months of school.  That's right, in addition to attempting to launch an ISV, I'm going back to school.  Here's the real kicker.  That figure isn't for the start of an MBA at Wharton or the first year of Harvard Law.  That's the figure for the first year of continuing my undergraduate program.  (If you're interested in my background story, I've posted my entrance essay here.)
To be fair, that figure includes living expenses in NYC and tuition for Columbia.  The estimated figure for tuition and books is around $35,000 per year.  That's still quite a chunk of change.  With all this talk of "Does College Matter?", you may be wondering why I'm doing this.  Is it because I've been laid off?  Actually, I am leaving a great job and with it a number of un-vested stock options which, based on the stock price as of this writing, have actual monetary value.

Yesterday was my last full day.

So does college really matter?  If I stay in the same field (which I plan on doing), an undergraduate degree won't really get me a better job than the one I'm leaving behind.  I'll have a better pedigree to be sure, but it may not matter much for me professionally.  Where college matters for me is personally.  Many people often talk about how much differently they'd do things if they could go back.  How much more they'd get out of the experience.  Well I plan to do those things and get that extra experience.  I don't plan on mimicking Rodney Dangerfield's crazy antics in Back to School.
College will also free me from actual work so I can focus my copious free time on starting up as Paul Graham talks about here.  I realize that my situation isn't exactly what Mr. Graham had in mind, but I can still use it to my advantage.  So while I write about my experiences as a wanna-be ISV there may be some of this life mixed in.

Comments

[Collin]

Paul, I'm reminded of this speech, which supposedly Larry Ellison had given at Yale in front of a graduating class.

The letter that was circulated is an obvious piece of fiction, although I know enough about Larry Ellison to see why people would not put a act like that past the realm of possibility.

I have been in many arguments with people where I was determined to stress my point that a person with a college degree has less of a chance to get a job then someone who has work experience or a nice portfolio to back them up. I still think this is true, however if I could have gone to school rather then be a high school dropout who went strait into the job market then I would have loved to do so. I did at least get to go to a community college for a few semesters before I moved off to Silicon Valley to watch the dot com bubble burst.

The experience and networking possibilities alone are probably worth going. Just remember to stay on top of all of the latest advances to technology and development tools. In 1 - 2 years time the playing field can change quite a bit.

Best of luck to you. I would be lying if I said I wasn't the least bit jealous.

[Paul Dix]

Thanks! I plan on staying current. Some freelance consulting in addition to my ISV efforts should help keep me up to date. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy college life.

[Michael Sica]

Congrats and best of luck. If you've got the ability to do what you said you're about to do (go back to school and work on a startup), then more power to you!

Unlike Collin, I'm not the least bit jealous. I'm DAMN jealous. ;)

Good luck!