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To: Les H who wrote (48718)	11/5/2025 3:17:02 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 48775

Palantir says college is no longer a reliable training ground—so it hired 22 high school students instead: ‘Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination.’ Story by Emma Burleigh, November 5, 2025 While many college students across the U.S. are still knee-deep in their studies, one small cohort of pupils is about to turn their tassels. But instead of graduating from an elite university, they’re wrapping up a niche program at $452 billion tech giant Palantir. The company’s Meritocracy Fellowship launched this April: a four-month, paid internship for recent high school graduates not enrolled in college. The program required Ivy League-level test scores to quality, and attracted over 500 applicants, with only 22 teenagers making the cut—a mix of those who felt attending college wasn’t compelling, or didn’t get into their dream schools, according to WSJ reporting. During their stint, the pupils learned about U.S. history and foundations of the West, working alongside Palantir’s full-time employees in solving technical problems and improving products. Palantir is known controversially for its defense technology, particularly providing software for ICE and running data analytics for the U.S. Army, which has entered a resurgence under the Trump administration. This month, fellows will wrap the program after deciding to forgo their undergraduate degrees—and those who “excelled” will be given the chance to interview for a salaried job at the business. The fellowship may sound unorthodox, as major tech companies like Meta have historically snatched young talent right after they received their college diplomas. But Palantir’s program reflects CEO Alex Karp’s disdain for higher education; the gig was advertised as a way to “get the Palantir degree” and “Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination.” “Everything you learned at your school and college about how the world works is intellectually incorrect,” Karp told CNBC in an interview earlier this year. Palantir says college is no longer a reliable training ground—so it hired 22 high school students instead: ‘Skip the debt. Skip the indoctrination.’ Misleading since high schools now offer courses and certificate programs from universities and high tech companies in computer science, artificial intelligence, advanced mathematics, etc. that are intended to provide training offered in the first two years of college. It's not as if they're not receiving formal training or other internship opportunities before Palantir. It's been required or at least preferred of new college graduates for a long time to have relevant work experience in addition to the degree. It's not just in IT.