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Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching a school called The Horowitz Andreessen Academy<\/a> aimed at aspiring founders who have just graduated high school and have not yet attended college.<\/p>\n The academy is aiming to train these high school grads with hands-on coursework on a variety of topics ranging from the technical (such as \u201cAI Research and Models\u201d) to life philosophy (such as \u201cThe Geometry of Luck,\u201d which promises to teach students \u201cabout arranging a life so good fortune flows through it.\u201d) Students will also work on personal projects. The school\u2019s main pitch is that it promises to provide students with mentors who are big names in tech.<\/p>\n The school is currently accepting applications for its first year, which will be a one-year program that charges no tuition, and is open to about 50 students, \u201cchosen on proof of work: what they have built, shipped, or\u00a0earned,\u201d according to the school\u2019s FAQ<\/a>. The academy is located in San Francisco and students will be responsible for their own housing (although the school is working to help them find it and match them with other student roommates).<\/p>\n One item to note: The academy is currently not an accredited school, so participants will not earn a degree, or college credits that transfer elsewhere.<\/p>\n In 2028, The Horowitz Andreessen Academy \u2014 which is a for-profit venture that has raised $42 million \u2014 hopes to offer a two-year program. At that point, it plans to charge tuition \u201csimilar in cost to an elite private university,\u201d the school\u2019s CEO Gagan Biyani said<\/a> in a post on X. The schools, which is open to high school graduates, even if they are younger than 18, may also expand beyond 50 students in the future, an a16z spokesperson tells TechCrunch.<\/p>\n In exchange for that elite-tuition price tag, students will gain access to 200 speakers and mentors, including people from 10 founding corporate partners: Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. Those companies and dozens of others hope to hire from the grads of this school, Biyani said.<\/p>\n So, this is like if Y Combinator (the most famed startup school) and Peter Thiel\u2019s Fellowship Program (a famed program for young people who opt to build companies instead of attend college) had a baby. The difference is, instead of a short-term experience ending with funding for a company, these students will pay tuition, earn tech-trade skills, and have an inside track at tech industry jobs. Or they may also have a startup in the works, built with access to a lot of mentorship.<\/p>\n As the founders of the academy describe<\/a>, it\u2019s meant to be a new, middle ground between obtaining a full degree before entering the tech industry and dropping out to start a company. In this era when AI has been hampering the entry-level job market<\/a>, gaining access to jobs may be enough reason for some young people to try this new trade school-like approach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n