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A student walked out of their LSAT exam 20 minutes in and his decision made him a millionaire

He was going to be a lawyer. He ended up co-founder of Reddit.

reddit, millionaire, alexis ohanian, college, college dropout

Reddit's founder never graduated from college.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Canva
Erik Barnes
By Erik BarnesSep 09, 2025
Erik Barnes
See Full Bio

In 2005, Alexis Ohanian was supposed to graduate from the University of Virginia. He was then supposed to go to law school for three years. After countless hours studying, he went into the classroom to take his Law School Admissions Test. But, twenty minutes into the exam, he quit, walked out, and headed to a nearby Waffle House to think about his future. This decision would make him a millionaire.

While eating at the greasy spoon diner, Ohanian decided to just “invent a career and be an entrepreneur.” He paired up with his roommate, Steve Huffman, and the two decided to skip their spring break vacation to Cancun to attend a “How to Start a Start-Up” Harvard lecture being held by an investor, Paul Graham. After socializing, networking, and pitching to Graham, the two roommates got the funding to start a community-based social media forum. They called it “Reddit.” It would become one of the most popular websites in the world. Ohanian went from a law school dropout to a millionaire at age 23.

@wallstreetjournal

At WSJ's Future of Everything festival, Alexis Ohanian debunks one career lie he's been told. Producers: @jacob.ohara Gianna Barberia #careeradvice #alexisohanian #wsj

Ohanian is far from the only story about a college dropout turned millionaire. Oprah Winfrey dropped out of Tennessee State University when she got offered a TV job. Steven Spielberg dropped out of California State University. These stories are almost like an endorsement on dropping out of college and raises the question, “Is college worth it?”

Today, due to the high cost of student loans and an ultra competitive, evolving job market, several soon-to-be university graduates might regret pursuing a college degree. But the worth of college isn’t really the degree itself. The thing that Ohanian, Winfrey, and others most benefited from during their time in college wasn’t the degree at all, but networking.

@limmytalks

The older i got, the more i realized what the phrase “network = net worth” REALLY meant. This is the true benefit of going to a name brand university #college #university #ivyleague #applyingtocollege #collegeadmissions

Sure, Ohanian didn’t land a law degree, but he likely wouldn’t have been a millionaire had he not met his college roommate turned business partner. They certainly wouldn’t have had financial backing had they both not attended a Harvard University lecture to meet their future initial investor. Ohanian didn’t profit from college in the paperwork sense, but it did lead him to the right people.

It's the same with many other college dropout successes. Steven Spielberg dropped out after getting a job at Universal Studios, but likely wouldn’t have gotten an offer if he went to school outside of California where all of the film industry professionals lived. Oprah Winfrey likely wouldn’t have gotten a TV job offer—one that her college professor told her to drop out of class and pursue—if she wasn’t working at her college’s radio station.

@sleepyheadkl

Networking is really important, comes in all shapes and sizes, and is sometimes unexpected and how it works out. 😊 ##networkingtips##artisttips##artistnetwork##bookmarks##sleepyheadkl##artistsoftiktok

College may be getting more expensive, but it’s still considered worthwhile, not just for earning potential but because the students would likely be around other students and professionals in their field of interest for networking opportunities. The ability to network is an ever-growing, necessary skill with or without a degree. Depending on where you want to go in life, networking while attending school could be worth more than the degree itself. If your career interests are in certain trades or arts that don’t require a college degree, getting into communities involved in those interests will allow you to make genuine connections, both personally and professionally.

Depending on your path, a college degree might not be the best bet for your future, but the college experience might be. It certainly was for Ohanian.

alexis ohanianentrepreneurgenuine connectionslaw schoolnecessary skillnetworking opportunitiesredditstudent loanscollege dropoutsmillionairescollege

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