The Most Successful NEW College Dropouts

Boonsri Dickinson, Business Insider

Every generation has its college dropout heroes.

The Baby Boom had Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Michael Dell.

Generation X had people like Digg founder Kevin Rose, Napster's Shawn Fanning, and Blogger creator and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams.

Generation Y (i.e. people under 30) has plenty of stars too, including that guy who started Facebook.

High profile people like Peter Thiel are starting programs to encourage them, offering money and support for those who want to skip higher education and get right down to business. Nonetheless, most dropouts actually end up worse off, earning 80 percent less than a college grad and significantly more likely to be unemployed.

In the end it takes an special breed of person to make it big without a degree (and some of these "dropouts" never even made it to college.)