Thiel Fellowship (Under 20)

# Thiel Fellowship The Thiel Fellowship is one of the most provocative and prestigious programs for young entrepreneurs in the world—a $100,000 grant paid over two years for remarkable young people (under 22) who want to build world-changing companies and technologies without waiting for college. Created by PayPal co-founder and legendary investor Peter Thiel, the Fellowship provides more than money: it offers mentorship from Silicon Valley's most accomplished founders and investors, a community of exceptional young builders, and validation that your ideas are worth pursuing right now. ## About the Thiel Fellowship The Thiel Fellowship was launched in 2011 with a deliberate challenge to the educational status quo: the assumption that college is the only path to building something meaningful. Thiel famously argued that for some exceptional individuals, the best education comes from doing—building a company, conducting independent research, or creating something new—rather than spending four years in a classroom. The Fellowship is not anti-education. It is pro-ambition. Many Fellows who paused college have returned to complete degrees. Others built companies that changed industries—and never needed the degree. What the Fellowship selects for is a specific kind of clarity and drive: someone who knows what they want to build and wants to start building it now. ## Fellowship Structure **Financial Award**: $100,000 paid in stipends over 24 months ($4,166/month) **Mentorship Network**: Fellows gain direct access to the Thiel Foundation's network of mentors—investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, and technologists including the founders of LinkedIn, Lyft, SpaceX suppliers, Palantir, Airbnb, and many others. **Community**: The Fellows cohort is deliberately small (typically 20–30 Fellows per year). This creates an unusually close-knit community of exceptional peers who share resources, introductions, and collaboration. **No Strings Attached**: The Fellowship does not take equity in Fellows' companies and has no academic requirements. The only ask is that Fellows spend the two-year Fellowship period not enrolled full-time in college. ## Past Fellows and Their Projects Thiel Fellows have built companies worth billions of dollars: - **Vitalik Buterin**: Co-created Ethereum (the world's #2 cryptocurrency by market cap) - **Austin Russell**: Founded Luminar Technologies (LiDAR for self-driving cars, NYSE: LAZR) - **Ritesh Agarwal**: Founded OYO Rooms (one of the world's largest hotel chains) - **Dylan Field**: Co-founded Figma (acquired by Adobe for $20 billion) - **Laura Deming**: Founded Longevity Fund (aging research venture capital firm) ## Eligibility The Thiel Fellowship is open to individuals **under 22** years of age at the time of application. There are no academic requirements, nationality restrictions, or background prerequisites. What matters is the quality of your idea, your demonstrated capability, and your commitment to pursuing it. ## Application Process Applications open in **September** and close in **December**. The application is project-focused: applicants must describe what they want to build, why they're the right person to build it, and what they've already done to make progress. A committee of Thiel Foundation advisors evaluates applications, invites finalists to interview, and selects Fellows in spring. ## Who Should Apply? The Fellowship is not for everyone—and it says so explicitly. It is for students who have a concrete project, startup, or research idea they are already actively pursuing, and who are ready to commit to it full-time. High school seniors who are building something real should seriously consider applying before matriculating at a university. For high school students applying to colleges, a Thiel Fellowship application—even without winning—demonstrates the ambition and entrepreneurial mindset that highly selective schools find compelling.