Dot-commers back in class
Who are those Stanford undergraduates walking around with the world-weary looks and a new appreciation for Shakespeare? They wear nice clothes, but they can't afford lunch. They're a little older than their classmates, and perhaps a little wiser.
They are the dot-com dropouts: laid off, shut down and back in school.
Thanks to Stanford University's liberal policy on leaves of absence, it was easy in recent years for undergrads with dreams of dot-com riches, dot-com fame or simply dot-com experience to ``stop out'' -- college lingo for taking a leave for a quarter or longer.
Fortunately, when the dot-coms began imploding, it was just as easy to come back.
A year ago, Peter Douglas, a Stanford English major, responded to an e-mail sent to English students by Bluedog, a developer of Internet shopping tools, and began working part-time as a writer. Tempting him with more responsibility, $40,000 a year and stock options, Bluedog persuaded Douglas to stop out and work full time.
``It was very alluring,'' said Douglas, 22, who will graduate in June. ``I'd never had that kind of spending money. I bought a television, a DVD player, new clothes, and I started doing things like going out to dinner two times a week.''
Quickly, he learned that $40,000 doesn't go very far in the Bay Area. Between dining regularly at L'Amie Donia in Palo Alto, buying more than 100 DVDs, including the entire James Bond collection, and paying $1,200 in rent every month -- his half of the rent on a one-bedroom apartment he shared with a roommate -- he found himself in debt.
Then, in August, he found himself out of work.
``There were a few layoffs and I sort of had to give up my post,'' he said. Bluedog is now dead, its tombstone a brief farewell message on its Web site.
There are no numbers on how many Stanford undergrads leave school to work, but anecdotally, professors, campus officials and students say they noticed an increase in students stopping out in the past few years.
Now, there is a steady trickle of prodigal sons and daughters returning to the Farm. Some will graduate with their classes because of credits accumulated before they stopped out; some will be a quarter or more behind. The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper, ran an editorial recently welcoming back the ``dot-com refugees.''
Douglas returned to Stanford last fall, and had to work several part-time jobs to get out of debt.
``Most students who do this think they're going to go off and make a fortune with some hot new idea,'' he said. ``It's very humbling to realize it takes more than just a good idea, and it takes more than just a hot economy.''
Liberal leave policy
Stanford Dean of Students Marc Wais said he knows of several students who recently returned after an unsuccessful stint in the start-up world.
``Two years ago, we had a real concern that there was a dearth of students aspiring to certain campus leadership positions, because of the lure of the dot-coms,'' Wais said. ``And Stanford has a very liberal and understanding stop-out policy. Some schools have time limits.''
But stopping out is less popular now that the economy has changed.
``They're coming back, and most of the ones coming back didn't strike it rich,'' Wais said. ``But they wouldn't trade the experience for anything. They learned a great deal about business and working and about living on their own. Their regret is that they've lost track of their class -- the people they entered Stanford with are gone -- so they feel a little bit out of touch.''
One benefit of the dot-com experience is that it has made the returning students think twice about start-ups, and even the larger corporate world.
Get rich quick
James Silva, 24, an engineering student who stopped out last fall for a job only to be laid off in March, said he hopes to tutor junior high school students after he graduates in June. After trying, and failing, to get rich quick, he is curious about what else is out there beyond engineering.
Silva's job, at a Web consulting firm in San Francisco, paid $56,000 plus stock options. He could have made even more money but chose instead to take more options.
``I took the stocks because I thought, `Wow, I'm going to be rich,' '' he said.
Like Douglas, Silva slipped easily from being a broke student to being a big spender.
``I bought all kinds of gadgets, clothes, I got everyone nice Christmas gifts, I stopped doing laundry and took it to the wash-and-fold,'' he said. ``It was great. It's as good as everybody tells you it's going to be.''
But he didn't save any money. He figured he would have time for that later.
``You think you have control over how long you'll stay at a company, when really, it doesn't work that way,'' he said.
Getting laid off was a shock, even though in retrospect, Silva sees that the warning signs were there. It was a great ride while it lasted -- even if he does have to do his own laundry again.
``I appreciate Stanford much more,'' he said, enjoying a sunny morning on the terrace in front of the student union. ``You take the environment for granted -- always being able to have an intelligent conversation at any time -- the real world isn't like that.''
David Endelman, who runs an on-campus incubator that nurtures student entrepreneurship, agreed things have changed.
``Everyone had friends working in start-ups who made it big,'' he said. ``How could you not be swept up in it all? Especially when you know these people are mortals just like you. There's a backlash now. People are sick of it all. The pressure, the hype.''
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