Dropping out of college

[Anonymous]

Most new businesses spend many years in the red before they earn a profit and that is supposing that these business have studied the market well and accurately ascertained the needs of the consumer. How good of a business plan do they have? And where are they getting the capital to weather this time?

I'd try to find someone who works with new businesses to look at your son's plan and give him some straight talk. What he wants to do after that is up to him, but don't fund his lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

My brother dropped out of MIT to try a business. It failed after about 4 years (made some money but ultimately not enough) and he went back to school and finished his degree. He’s now CTO of a company you have heard of. He did 5 more start-ups before going to larger companies.

Let your DC take a gap year and try his business.

I would absolutely not make my child go back to college if they didn’t want to be there - huge waste of a very large amount of money.

[Anonymous]

If he is a student in good standing at his school, he ought to be able to take a leave of absence. Has he explored that? If he has decent grades in college he will be able to get back into college - and maybe even a better quality one, even with a failed business under his belt.

[Anonymous]

He's young. If he's ever going to take a chance like this, it's now. I would support him.

[Anonymous]

I say cut him off completely. If you're still paying for his health insurance, then you're still mommying him. If he wants to be a grown up, let him be. Let him make his decisions. Decisions have consequences.

No? Then why not pay his rent? Give him a stipend? Pay his cell phone bill.

If college is important to you, then tell him it's an all or nothing game with you. Either he gets life paid for and goes to college or he makes it on his own.

[Anonymous]

College is a huge change. It’s hard to be in a new place and make new friends. He wants the comfort of what he knows - his friends. The rest is just fluff. If he really wanted to start a business - he can do that at college.

The new friends he has made just don’t feel as comfortable as his old friends and his old life. But by the end of the year he will feel differently. What you need to do now is give him the words to not get himself into a situation where he feels he had to do something bc he “promised” his friends.

There is a good chance those friends will change their mind and they will do it out of the blue. Tell him that he can’t make a commitment to the plan with his friends until the end of the school year. This gives him some room to be able to say yeah my parents are making me. wait ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say cut him off completely. If you're still paying for his health insurance, then you're still mommying him. If he wants to be a grown up, let him be. Let him make his decisions. Decisions have consequences.

No? Then why not pay his rent? Give him a stipend? Pay his cell phone bill.

If college is important to you, then tell him it's an all or nothing game with you. Either he gets life paid for and goes to college or he makes it on his own.

NP. The difference between health insurance and those other things is that, without health insurance, he could literally die. Or he, or more likely his parents, could go deeply into debt making sure he doesn't die.

If they don't pay his cell phone, it gets turned off. If he doesn't pay rent he gets evicted and then he couch surfs for a while. See the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If he is a student in good standing at his school, he ought to be able to take a leave of absence. Has he explored that? If he has decent grades in college he will be able to get back into college - and maybe even a better quality one, even with a failed business under his belt.

Oh, this, OP. Has he looked into this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say cut him off completely. If you're still paying for his health insurance, then you're still mommying him. If he wants to be a grown up, let him be. Let him make his decisions. Decisions have consequences.

No? Then why not pay his rent? Give him a stipend? Pay his cell phone bill.

If college is important to you, then tell him it's an all or nothing game with you. Either he gets life paid for and goes to college or he makes it on his own.

You pay health insurance because, unfortunately, in America it can be the difference between life and death. He gets Leukemia and doesn’t have insurance, he gets no care or crappy care. He feels sick and can’t afford a doctors visit and the cancer is missed with it is still treatable. There is a difference between having a kid share a rundown apartment with 3 other boys, live on ramen and learn to use the bus and putting him (and you) in a position where he needs hundreds of thousands in emergency or life threatening care.

[Anonymous]

Keep us posted Op
and in 3-5 years from now

[Anonymous]

I’m sure it’s scary for you as a parent worrying about your DC’s future—but this seems like a they have thought through this plan. If I were in your shoes, I’d advise my child my financial support extends to health insurance, and encourage them to look into SCORE or a thINCubator for business mentorship/feedback.

[Anonymous]

What kind of business is he thinking about ?
Don’t forget he is going to learn great amount from this adventure.
Most of the great technology companies are created by college dropouts.