Sophomore Wins Thiel Fellowship

A former Mather sophomore is on the fast track towards joining the growing list of Harvard drop outs who made it big after leaving Harvard.

Peter A. Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and one of the first investors in Facebook—is paying 20 undergraduates from colleges across the country 100,000 dollars to drop out of school and start their own companies.

Among Thiel's prodigies is Sujay Tyle—17 years old and formerly a member of the class of 2013—who is researching ways to create cheap biofuels out of cellulose.

Tyle could not be reached for comment.

Tyle is no stranger to success—he interned at Dupont as a teenager and began working in a lab at age 11.

With his brother, he runs a non-profit organization that helps the visually impaired.

"Tyle's probably going to make it big whether he's a Thiel fellow or not," Liz Dwyer wrote for GOOD.

Thiel's philosophy is that to be successful, people do not need to pay big bucks for an elite education.

He hopes that the students, dubbed the "20 under 20," will use the money to pursue projects in areas ranging from energy to, ironically, education, showing that college is not always a necessity.

And if his company fails, Tyle can always come back to Harvard.