The Dobie Center, a dorm complex at the University of Texas at Austin, is 27 stories tall and boasts a cafeteria, a movie theater, and a pool. Twenty-five years ago, a young resident of the tower decided to make and sell low-cost PCs from stock components. Michael Dell scrounged up $1,000 and turned his room into a mini assembly line, and the rest is history. In the years since Dell launched the world's best-known college start-up, more students have followed his lead. Below, you will meet 16 of them. As these profiles (written by campus journalists) reveal, an enterprising kid like Michael Dell is no longer the exception to the rule.
