Why did Mark Zuckerberg drop out of Harvard?

The question of why did Mark Zuckerberg drop out of Harvard is one that many people are interested in. To answer this, we first have to understand the time period and what was going on at the university. In 2003, there was a big shift happening in terms of how students interacted with each other. Social media had become so popular that it became apparent that Facebook would be a great way for students to connect and stay up-to-date about their lives while they were away from home. When Mark saw how much potential Facebook could have as an online social network, he knew he wanted to work on it full-time rather than continue his education at Harvard University.

Mark Zuckerberg educational history:

The Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg was born on 14th May 1984, in White Plains, New York, and raised in Dobbs Ferry, born into a well-educated family, at an early age he developed an interest in computer programming. When he was 12, he developed a messaging program called Zucknet that works as a communication system for his father’s dental practice. 

Since he was so drawn towards computer science his parents hired a computer programming tutor when he was in high school. They encouraged Zuckerberg to enroll in a prep school in New Hampshire and after his graduation, he went to Harvard University.

In 2010 a film called The Social Network was released which was based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg life. The movie showed the incidents that led to the launch of Facebook when Mark Zuckerberg was still studying at Harvard University. It was a good film but with some creative liberties. The movie was a complete dramatization of how Zuckerberg and his squad built Facebook. In his second year at Harvard, Zuckerberg and his friends developed a website called Facemash, where the students can rate the other students based on their physical appearance. Later, the site went viral and got shut down by Harvard. 

Why did Mark Zuckerberg drop out of Harvard? Is it because of Facebook?

It is still debated on who came up with the idea of Facebook. In the beginning, Zuckerberg was hired by the Winklevoss twins to create a website similar to Facebook. Later they sued him for stealing their ideas and settled for $65 million for breach of contract.

In February 2004, Zuckerberg along with his friends Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes launched Facebook. By June 2004, they completed their academic year and moved Facebook Headquarters to Palo Alto, California. He then dropped off from Harvard and started working on Facebook full-time. Now, Facebook is one of the biggest tech giants on the planet with a net worth of $190 Billion.

Who else left Harvard and became successful?

Bill Gates at the age of 20, dropped out for Microsoft, Matt Damon the famous Hollywood actor dropped out just one semester and 12 credits short of a degree, Alexo Von Tobel left Harvard Business School to develop a personal finance website LearnVest. Dusting Moskovitz left Harvard for Facebook and is now worth $8.3 billion. But all the dropouts mentioned above are successful and people in general talk or celebrate success stories. There is no guarantee that every dropout turned out to be rich and successful.