Lewis acknowledges the reasons why students are scared to drop out of school—citing the common perception that delaying graduation will obstruct “progress” toward a professional career—but also argues that there is not actually all that much to lose.

“I say to people, if you don’t go to graduate school immediately after you graduate ... what’s the worst that’s going to happen to you? You’re going to be exactly where you would have been later in life, but you’ll reach there at 50 instead of 48,” he says.

THE ADVANTAGES OF STAYING BACK

For those with dreams of launching a tech company, the life of a typical College student can feel not only humdrum but like a constraint on their aspirations. A midnight deadline for a response paper about a half-read copy of Jane Austen’s “Emma” is difficult to balance with seeking venture capital funding, double and triple checking code, and making sure that the servers haven’t crashed.

“To be here you have to hand in response papers about really tedious Victorian novels, but on the other hand your access to resources while you’re on campus expands,” Novendstern says.

But he does not discount the advantages of being on campus and says with conviction that he plans to graduate.

Still, he may very well take more time off from the University before he gets his diploma. CommonPlace, which met with “stunning success” at its full launch in Falls Church, Va., is a major time commitment, and if Novendstern can secure funding this summer, he will not be back at Harvard in the fall.

For Axel R. Hansen ’13 and Jonah L. Varon ’13—who recently created the social networking site Newsle—access to resources has been a key factor in their decision to stay in school despite the average time commitment of over 40 hours a week running and developing the site.

The pair frequent faculty office hours with departments ranging from computer science to business because securing venture capital has been a difficult task, according to Hansen.

Server bills—which cost around $1000 a month—have driven the need to find investors, he says.

“To make something like this work you really have to be invested at all costs,” says Varon.

The ability to say they are students has also given them significant advantages in raising venture capital.

“Most investors aren’t into making an investment if you’re dropping out of school immediately,” says Hansen. The two have raised over $50,000 in investor capital to date.

THE STARTUP CULTURE

While Facebook and Microsoft both have their roots in Cambridge, the Silicon Valley in Calif. has long been considered the center of tech startups in the US. But young entrepreneurs at Harvard say that a startup culture has emerged and begun to blossom at Harvard.