Mr. Stephens. (Photo: DaleJStephens.com)

Dale Stephens has kept busy in his year and a half as a Thiel Fellow. At the stage of life when many undergraduates perfect their keg stands or develop adderall habits, he founded UnCollege, a cash-flow-positive organization that provides resources for independent learners, and wrote a book, Hacking Your Education, due to hit bookstores in the beginning of March. He also amassed an impressive stack of press mentions, preaching the gospel of "unschooling" to outlets like The New York Times. 

But as he arranges his book tour, it seems not everyone is interested in hearing Mr. Stephens' arguments against the cultural hegemony of the four-year college experience. When he reached out to Hendrix College--the Conway, Arkansas-based liberal arts education he left for the Thiel Fellowship--he was rebuffed.

"I thought it would be interesting to go back and have a conversation with them about what has changed in the last two years and how they're responding" to new, virtual options. Mr. Stephens tried a couple of different channels, from former professors to the provost. But he got the cold shoulder.

"The response, basically, was 'You are not welcome here. We do not want you to come back, at all. We are not interested in engaging, and steer clear,'" said Mr. Stephens. "I was just amazed that Hendrix was, like, so opposed to this idea of even engaging in a conversation two years later," he added.

Asked for comment, Hendrix spokesperson told Betabeat, "While we regularly invite and promote speakers on a variety of topics that are relevant to our academic program to campus for the benefit of our students, past and present, faculty, and the community, Hendrix does not provide a venue for individuals to promote personal projects."

It's apparently not the response Mr. Stephens is used to getting. While a couple of universities have pushed back, he told Betabeat most institutions are at least receptive to hearing him out. He says his final book tour schedule will likely include at least a couple of universities. He's also consulting with Philadelphia University. "Colleges are realizing they have to be more competitive," Mr. Stephens argued.

The creation of UnCollege also happens to coincide with Silicon Valley's flirtation with burning the system to the ground. Witness the advent of Coursera and Udacity. Peter Thiel launched the 20 Under 20 fellowship program with the declaration that higher education is one big bubble, the experience massively overvalued. Ben Horowitz recently stood on stage at DLD and professed that his firm prefers to invest in ambitious drop-outs.

With the disruptors circling, it's no wonder that a university might be wary of hosting a former student known to utter statements like, "College fails to empower us with the skills necessary to become productive members of today's global entrepreneurial economy."

Mr. Stephens described his startup as "for purpose," rather than merely for profit. But there are plenty of people who'd like to make some money off the idea that a college degree ain’t what it used to be.

Mr. Stephens was quick to tell Betabeat that Hendrix itself was not the problem: "I met a bunch of other unschoolers, people who had left school fairly early and who were at Harvard and Dartmouth and University of Washington and a bunch of other universities, and they all had the same frustrations with school," he explained. "It got me thinking that this had nothing all to do with Hendrix and everything to do with the way the entire system is designed."

But that's the thing: Challenge the whole kit and caboodle and you're challenging the individual institution, too. Mr. Stephens suggests that educators are probably resistant because their livelihood is at stake: “I think the advent of pervasiveness of technology is threatening their jobs and that’s going to happen sooner or later.”

"I just happen to be pointing it out, so it feels like I am the cause of this downfall."

On the bright side, at least Mr. Stephens will probably avoid calls from Hendrix's alumni association two years hence.

Congratulations, David Karp! The Tumblr founder will grace the cover of the January 21 issue of Forbes, headlining the magazine's "30 Under 30" issue, in which pages he reveals his "Jason Bourne or James Bond fantasy" and holds forth on his minimalist proclivities.

It's a fine honor for the Williamsburg loft-owner, but the occasion left Betabeat with a feeling of déjà vu. Hadn't we seen his name in a litany or two before?

That's no ill reflection on Mr. Karp: It's not his fault he launched Tumblr at 21. But we worry about how publications will write about him once he ages out of the category.

In the meantime, in honor of Mr. Karp’s 26 years on earth, 26 lists in which he’s appeared:

1. 30 Under 30 (2012): "'I don’t have any books. I don’t have many clothes,' Karp shrugs. 'I’m always so surprised when people fill their homes up with stuff.'" [Forbes]

2. 40 Under 40: "When he was 11, the Manhattan native read HTML for Dummies." [Crain's New York Business]

3. The New Establishment: "Ride: A World War II–era reproduction Ural motorcycle, complete with an olive-green sidecar for Karp’s longtime girlfriend, Rachel Eakley, and the couple’s French-English bulldog, Clark." [Vanity Fair]

4. Innovator's Under 35: "'I can always move back in with my parents,' [Karp] says." [MIT Technology Review]

5. The Time 100 Poll (2012): "The tech world is full of college dropouts, but serial risk taker Karp ended his formal education at 15 and took a job as CTO of Urban Baby before he was even allowed to vote." [Time]

6. Digital Power Index: "He dropped out of high school after the ninth grade, lived in Tokyo while working as the CTO of parenting site UrbanBaby, and founded the über-popular blogging site Tumblr when he was just 20." [Daily Beast]

7. 5 Inspirational Young Internet Entrepreneurs: "The then 21-year-old Karp founded Tumblr in 2007 out of his bedroom in his mother's apartment in New York City." [Jakarta Globe]

8. The World's Five Youngest CEOs: "Tumblr’s David Karp brings up the rear of our list at 25 years old, barely edging out  Globals Incs.’s Suhas Gopinath, who took the top spot last year." [Business Pundit]

9. The 25 Richest Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30: "New York City's brightest high school dropout flipped his earnings from working as a software consultant at UrbanBaby to fund his microblogging empire, which accounts for over 64.7 million blogs and 27.5 billion total posts." [Complex]

10. The Time 100 Poll (2011): "At just 20, Karp created the trendy blogging platform after finding other services less than desirable." [Time]

11. 30 Founders Under 30 Who Are Shaking Up Industries: "David started Tumblr in 2007 with his own savings from previously held jobs in the software industry." [Business Insider]

12. 30 Under 30, Social/Mobile (2011): "He created Tumblr, currently the most popular blogging platform on the Internet." [Forbes]

13. 30 and Under: 9 Young Founders Who Running Billion-Dollar Companies "David Karp founded Tumblr when he was 21. Now it's worth nearly $1 billion." [Business Insider]

14. The Disrupters: "'So when we released our platform, we took it straight to the tumblelogging community and said, 'Hey, look, we built a real tool to make all the neat stuff you guys are doing available to more people.'" [Fast Company]

15. 27 Inspiring Young Internet Entrepreneurs: "Tumblr is a free online service that lets you effortlessly share anything." [Young Entrepreneur]

16. 8 Well Known Entrepreneurs Who Made a Million Dollars in Their First Month of Business: "In real terms though, David  Karp made millions instantly, as his net worth was in the millions as soon as Tumblr took off." [Addicted2Success]

17. The 10 Most Eligible CEO Bachelors: "He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and was home-schooled after that." [Business Insider]

18. The Sexiest 50 CEOs Alive: "He considers himself 'antischedule,' except for board meetings, and rides to Tumblr's Manhattan office on his Vespa." [Business Insider]

19. Youngest Richest Internet Entrepreneurs: "David Karp brought blogging to the younger generation with Tumblr, with this very easy to set up blogging platform, that’s available for free." [Income Diary]

20.  Best Young Entrepreneurs: "But he expects the company to generate revenue this year by customizing its platform for big media companies and by charging regular users who want extra services, such as more visibility for their pages." [Businessweek]

21. NYC's New Wunderkinds: "The Internet's boy wonder." [Page 6 Magazine]

22.  Super Rich List: 20 Entrepreneurs Without Degrees: "Young entrepreneur founded and CEO of Tumblr, which launched in early 2007." [Work Awesome]

23. 100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded Without a College Degree: "Dropped out of school at 15, then homeschooled. Did not attend college." [Young Entrepreneur]

24. 20 Big Name Stars Under 25 That Are Making a Name for Themselves in the New York Tech Scene: "Karp founded Tumblr, a social blogging platform that’s reportedly raising a massive round." [Addicted2Success]

25. The 10 Most Young Richest Internet Entrepreneurs: "Tumblr is younger generation’s most widely used blogging platform and David Karp is its founder. It is a free and handy platform where you can post text, images, videos and audio and re-blog other people’s content on your blog, while providing credit." [Top Ten Things]

26. 27 Great Web Geeks: "As the 23-year-old founder and CEO of Tumblr, David Karp has had to endure being called a 'boy genius' for the bulk of his legally drinking life." [Geekosystem]