Although there are many The college student opposite America is still digging in, and a small group of students are about to twirl their tassels. But instead of graduating from an elite university, they’re completing a niche program at a $452 billion tech giant Palantir.
corporate Elite Scholarship Launching this April: Four-month paid internships for recent high school graduates who are not going to college. The program, which requires Ivy League-level test scores, attracted more than 500 applicants, and only 22 teenagers made it through — including some who reportedly found college unattractive or didn’t get into their dream schools. wall street journal Report. During their studies, students learned about American history and the foundations of the West, and worked with full-time Palantir employees to solve technical problems and improve the product. Palantir has been controversial for its defense technology, especially Provide software Provides services to ICE and runs data analytics for the U.S. Army, which operates at Trump administration.
This month, fellows will wrap up the program after deciding to forgo their undergraduate degrees, and those who “outperform” will have the opportunity to interview for paid jobs with the company.
This scholarship may sound a little unorthodox, as big tech companies like Yuan Historically, young people have been robbed of their college diplomas as soon as they get them.
But Palantir’s plans reflect CEO Alex KarpA disdain for higher education; the job is promoted as a way to “get a Palantir degree” and “free from debt, free from indoctrination.”
“Everything you learn in school and college about how the world works is intellectually wrong,” Karp Tell CNBC in an interview earlier this year.
wealth Contact Palantir for comment.
CEO Alex Karp has disdain for ‘indoctrination’ universities
Karp is one of several CEOs, e.g. Ford’s Jim Farley and Meta’s Mark Zuckerbergquestioning whether a college degree is still worth it. Palantir’s leaders even disregard elite credentials when considering who to hire at the company. In his eyes, Palantir’s work experience was a better teacher.
“If you didn’t go to school, or you went to a not-so-good school, or you went to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantir — no one cares about the rest,” Karp said in his speech. Q2 2025 Earnings Conference Call. “This is by far the best credential in tech. If you come to Palantir, your career is set.”
Despite being a graduate of several universities, including Stanford, Karp lashed out at higher education institutions for lowering their current admissions standards, the “woke” culture on campuses, and failed to prepare Students of the working world.
“People with less than a college education are creating a lot of value using our products, sometimes even more value than people with a college education,” Karp continued on the earnings call.
“Opaque admissions standards at many American universities have replaced meritocracy and excellence,” Palantir post echo.
“As a result, qualified students are deprived of an education based on subjective and superficial standards. In the absence of meritocracy, campuses have become breeding grounds for extremism and chaos.”
More teenagers are no longer attending college
The company’s graduating Palanteens are just one small example of a broader shift happening among Gen Z high school students: They’re wondering if college is still worth it.
Seven in 10 Americans say the U.S. higher education system is moving in the wrong direction The most recent data comes from Pew Research Center. Fifty-five percent of Americans give colleges and universities a poor rating when it comes to preparing students for high-paying jobs in the current labor market. It points to growing dissatisfaction as entry-level jobs dry up, tuition rises and once-lucrative career paths studied in school, such as computer science, are being replaced by artificial intelligence.
As of July, 58% of students who graduated from college in the past year Still trying Finding stable employment, compared to 25% of Millennials and Generation Xers, Kickresume Report findings. They are losing hope of finding work at some of the most popular employers; hiring of new graduates at the 15 largest tech companies has dropped by more than 50% since 2019. according to SignalFire Ventures.
Not being able to find a job after college is a concern, but the financial burden new graduates are forced to shoulder only exacerbates this concern.
According to one agency, Gen Z carries an average of more than $94,000 in personal debt newsweek Conduct a poll Earlier this year, Millennials had about $60,000 in debt and Gen Xers had $53,000. Earlier this month, it was reported that Gen Z has seen the largest annual credit score declines of any age group since 2020. Their average FICO credit score dropped 3 percentage points to 676, which is 39 points lower than the national average of 715, according to FICO data. Report.