Mark Zuckerberg is heading back to Harvard, seven years after he dropped out to run Facebook.
The CEO won't be re-enrolling. Instead, he'll be there encouraging other Harvardians to follow him to Facebook.
Zuckerberg, together with Facebook's vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer, will be recruiting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University, as well as Harvard, starting Monday, November 7.
Though Zuckerberg's return to Harvard marks his first official visit since he left in 2004 for Silicon Valley, the Facebook CEO dropped by the school's campus in November 2005 to recruit for Facebook.
According to the Harvard Crimson, during his visit Zuckerberg announced that he was "not coming back" to Harvard, was receiving an annual salary of $65,000, and estimated Facebook's value as "a lot."
"The professors can identify who the smart students are," Zuckerberg said in 2005. "The job lends itself to people with raw intelligence rather than industry experience. And if you’re coming out of college, you have a really good idea of what Facebook is."
Zuckerberg and Shroepfer will be primarily meeting with computer science students and electrical and computer engineers. Harvard noted in a press release that it is hosting a discussion with Zuckerberg moderated by computer science lecturer David J. Malan and that Zuckerberg will meet with university officials, including Harvard president Drew Faust.
"Mark looks forward to visiting Harvard, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon University during next week's East Coast recruiting trip. He is eager to connect with computer science and engineering students from some of the best schools in the world, who may well be tomorrow's Facebook innovators," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told The Huffington Post in an email. According to Facebook, Zuckerberg's schedule and past experience in the East Coast helped determine the selection of schools.
In its account of Zuckerberg's 2005 recruiting visit, the Crimson noted that one student in particular caught Zuckerberg's eye: Priscilla Chan, who is the Facebook founder's girlfriend of over four years.
"Hey Priscilla, do you want a job at the Facebook?" Zuckerberg asked a passing friend.
"I’d love a job at Facebook," Priscilla Chan ’07 responded, offering him a Twizzler.