As the university system increasingly becomes a wildly expensive bastion of anti-Western sentiment, key figures in Silicon Valley are betting on alternatives to higher education. They argue that even the Ivy League is no longer producing the best candidates — nor are they even accepting some of the most qualified students.
“It used to be the case that you could rely on somebody who went to an Ivy or Ivy-equivalent to be top notch,” said Jordan Hirsch, who runs Palantir’s semester-long intensive Meritocracy Fellowship, which accepts high school graduates.“But that’s not the case anymore… we suspected that there was a lot of talent being missed.”
Palantir has become a pioneer of the effort to offer alternatives to the conventional four-year undergraduate degree — and now it’s planning to double the size of its third semester-long intensive.
The company’s four-month fellowship begins with a five-week crash course in Western civilization — studying philosophers like Aristotle and heroes like Churchill — with classes taught by visiting professors, journalists, and researchers alongside executives such as CEO Alex Karp and CTO Shyam Sankar.
In addition to spending the five weeks studying the classics and history, students also build software and later embed with a Palantir team for their assignments.
“What we’re trying to build is what we think the college environment should be — and do it in five weeks,” Hirsch said. “The mission is to support, sustain, and resuscitate the most important institutions, both commercial and government, in the West, in the United States in particular.”
He wants students to leave with an appreciation for “individual dignity, individual liberty, human agency, and… a real love for America, for all of its imperfections.”
Hirsch estimated that nearly 700 people applied last year for 26 slots. Applications for the next class open Oct. 15, and Palantir hopes to take as many as 50 fellows.
Some students are choosing this program in lieu of attending college, while others plan to attend after. Unlike college, which can now cost upwards of $100,000 a year, Palantir actually pays those in its class a monthly stipend of $5,400 intended to cover the cost of housing. Several fellows said it’s a refreshing alternative to four-year universities and student loans.
“I believe the fellowship and the values it represents should spur reform in higher education, and encourage young people to evaluate their options rather than choose college by default,” said Gabe Botton, 19, who was in the first fellowship class and is now employed full-time at Palantir.
“In my view, the fellowship is actually a very old model of education. The United States used to prioritize meritocracy over credentialism to an extreme, a tradition that goes all the way back to the founding of our country. George Washington had no formal degree, nor did many other greats throughout our history,” added Nick Hutfliz, 20, who was also in the first cohort and works at the company.
“Palantir is offering another path into that self-taught, self-driven thesis of how to learn that I think will be appealing to many students going forward, especially as more industries become more willing to let self-starters succeed regardless of age or background,” he added.
Others see spending four years in college — at a time when the world is transforming so rapidly — as an opportunity cost they can’t justify.
“College will be there in a year; this moment and inflection point in technology won’t,” said Sahana Crawford, 18, who is part of the current cohort.
“I could spend four years studying hard and paying for college, hoping to work at Palantir afterward. Or I could take the chance to work there before my first semester even started,” Botton said of his motivation for doing the program. “Quite frankly, I’d much rather wake up at 22 with four years at Palantir than a degree from any college.”
Palantir, of course, has been the subject of scrutiny given its cooperation with the Department of War on various projects, including work tied to Iran and ICE deportations. But, ironically, that backlash has actually helped with recruiting. “Several applicants this year found Palantir because of anti-Palantir content — they saw that and thought there must be more to the story, there must be something cool happening,” Hirsch said.
The effort is part of a broader push by tech firms and investors to change how universities operate — or build alternatives of their own.
While the Thiel Fellowship, founded back in 2011, helped pioneer the idea of an alternative, offering young people grants and access to investors, it wasn’t inherently educational.
The newly announced Horowitz Andreessen Academy, incubated by a16z, plans to bring aspiring founders and tech operators fresh out of high school to San Francisco for a tuition-free one-year fellowship beginning in fall 2027.
Students will build their own startup ideas and projects while studying subjects ranging from AI systems design to sales and fundraising, taught by founders and operators.
The University of Austin — not to be confused with UT Austin — launched in 2024 and was co-founded by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, alongside other conservative backers, is another alternative. The non-profit is a four-year college that pairs the Great Books of the Western tradition with training in mathematics, science and AI.
“Unlike most other universities, we are not neutral about America,” the school’s president, Carlos Carvalho, told The Post. “The University of Austin was founded to form graduates who can build the technologies of the future and know why they must build it in America, and for America.”
Its students study Homer, the Bible and the Federalist Papers alongside AI and computer science. The idea isn’t just to teach students how to build powerful tools, but what those tools should serve.
“America is going into the most consequential technological era, and yet our country’s universities are failing to teach students what principles these powerful tools should serve,” Carvalho said.
Palantir hopes its fellowship inspires other alternative models.
“We want this to be copied… we see this as a way to encourage universities to reform themselves,” Hirsch said. Institutions, he added, “do better with competition.”
