It's not at all surprising if you consider that it's the expected thing to do for upper-middle class kids. Presumably having gone to those schools also gives them knowledge of what the experience provides and how it did or did not help them start a business. I doubt it's some kind of evil plot to keep kids out of school.
I'm not sure it's knowledge so much as hope: they didn't have the guts to skip school and just start a business, but they hope someone else will. Whether it'll work or not is an open question, but I would've had more respect if they took that route themselves, rather than paying other kids to do their experiment for them.
(I doubly distrust Thiel in particular on this, because not only did he not take this advice himself, but he also has a decades-long political feud with what he views as the too-liberal political climate in higher education, so would like it to be bypassed, regardless of whether he honestly believes it's a good choice for the kids in question.)
