College enrollment is down. But indie hackers like Andreas Zhou of Askable ($250k/mo) don't need a degree.

College enrollment is down because of Covid. 16 million Americans canceled their plans to go to college this year. And the dropout rate (already at 40%) is looking like it may go up.

This could have big repercussions, especially among low-income demographics, who may be less likely to go back to college after things settle down. And if colleges continue have to raise their tuition even more...

But there's hope. Lots of indie hackers have made a go of it without an official degree.

I talked to Andreas Zhou of Askable about his experience dropping out (just don't tell his mom):

On the cut-off day for tuition refunds, we dropped out, took the refund money, and used that to start our business. It was only a month or two before graduation.

I remember very vividly when we decided to plan our escape route. In one of our design classes, an industrial designer was brought in to give what was supposed to be a pep talk. And this guy effectively says, "None of you are going to get jobs." John and I basically looked at each other and were like, "We need to figure something else out."

I started creating and selling websites to local businesses while John did both his homework and mine. From there, it all sort of unfolded organically and ten years later, our first business is thriving and we're working on our second.

To this day, I still haven't told my mom that I didn't graduate. She thinks I just didn't want to go to the ceremony. We ended up printing out these fake degrees as a joke. They say something like, "John and Andreas decided on this day to officially quit their university aspirations." We framed them. My mom saw mine and she just assumed it was the real degree.

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