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.
Fortune reached out to Palantir for comment.
CEO Alex Karp’s disdain for “indoctrinating” colleges
Karp is one of several CEOs, like Ford’s Jim Farley and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, questioning if college degrees are still worth it. The Palantir leader goes as far as completely disregarding elite diplomas when considering who to hire at the company. In his eyes, work experience at Palantir is a better teacher.
“If you did not go to school, or you went to a school that’s not that great, or you went to Harvard or Princeton or Yale, once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantirian—no one cares about the other stuff,” Karp said during its Q2 2025 earnings call. “This is by far the best credential in tech. If you come to Palantir, your career is set.”
Despite being a graduate of several colleges—including Stanford University—Karp has slammed higher education institutions for lowering their current admissions criteria, the “woke” culture on campuses and failing to prepare students for the working world.
“People with less than a college education are creating a lot of value—and sometimes more value than people with a college education—using our product,” Karp continued during the earnings call.
“Opaque admissions standards at many American universities have displaced meritocracy and excellence,” the Palantir posting echoed.
“As a result, qualified students are being denied an education based on subjective and shallow criteria. Absent meritocracy, campuses have become breeding grounds for extremism and chaos.”
More teenagers are already turning away from college
The company’s graduating Palanteens is just one small example of a broader shift happening among Gen Z high schoolers: they’re wondering if going to college is even worth it anymore.
Seven in 10 Americans say the U.S. higher education system is heading in the wrong direction, according to recent data from the Pew Research Center. And 55% of Americans gave colleges and universities poor ratings when it comes to prepping students for well-paying jobs in the current labor market. It’s signaling growing discontent as entry-level job opportunities run dry, tuition costs are on the rise, and once-lucrative career paths learned in school—like computer science—are being overtaken by AI.
As of July, 58% of students who graduated from college in the past year were still trying to find stable work, compared with 25% of millennials and Gen Xers who faced the same issue, a Kickresume report found. And they’re losing hope to get a job at some of the most popular employers; hiring for new graduates among the 15 biggest tech companies has fallen by over 50% since 2019, according to VC firm SignalFire.
Not being able to land a job out of college is one concern, but it’s only exacerbated by the financial burden fresh-faced graduates are forced to carry.
The average Gen Zer carries more than $94,000 in personal debt, according to a Newsweek poll conducted earlier this year, compared with millennials owing roughly $60,000, and Gen Xers $53,000. And earlier this month, it was reported that Gen Z saw the steepest annual credit score drop of any age group since 2020. Their average FICO credit score slipped three points to 676, 39 points lower than the national average of 715, according to the report.
