8 ms·

YC at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UPenn

46 points by katm 10y ago

ilamont 10y ago
Does YC ever visit non-top-tier schools?
- akhilcacharya 10y ago
  I attended their office hours with Kevin Hale at my school - NC State, very far from a top tier school. Neat experience, but [0] they never posted about visiting on HackerNews. [0] Apparently they did in their Winter Tour last year, my mistake.
  - katm 10y ago
    We announced the visit to NC State last year: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/
    - akhilcacharya 10y ago
      My mistake, must have missed that. I found out through our school's entrepreneurship program.
  - jnate15 10y ago
    NC State is more qualified than you give credit. US News ranks NC State's Engineering program higher than Duke's. Duke / NC State / UNC are three strong universities. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings/page+2 http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...
    - akhilcacharya 10y ago
      Eh - quality of education and research aside, and it's fine in that regard, it still doesn't have the same prestige as the other two by a long shot.
      - jnate15 10y ago
        I have experience with NC State, Duke, UNC. At the undergraduate level there isn't much difference between the three (except basketball).
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- John23832 10y ago
  I was just going to ask this. Silicon valley would be better served (and better serve others) when they stop giving hand service to the same schools they they went to and the people who think and act exactly like them.
  - katm 10y ago
    We try to mix it up. Here's where we went last winter: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/. And last fall: https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-office-hours-in-11-countries-this-fall/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-office-hours-in-11-countries...
    - ilamont 10y ago
      When YC posts about visiting the top-tier schools, it gives the impression that they are the only schools that matter. And I have to ask: If the Ivies/MIT/Stanford aren't the only schools that matter, why call them out in a post that's distinct from the winter tour post?
      - katm 10y ago
        I'm calling out the schools this time because when I submitted a post titled "YC Winter Tour 2016" last year, this is how it performed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402.
        John23832 10y ago
        Is there a requirement that YC announcements perform well? I'm not trying to be negative, but just announce all the tours the same way and let people make of it what they will.
        katm 10y ago
        No requirement. But why not try something different if the first version doesn't work well?
anotherarray 10y ago
What about the other 99% of talented students that couldn't afford these schools?
- katm 10y ago
  We do office hours in cities that anyone is welcome to sign up for. We're also going to be opening up signups for the MOOC shortly that anyone anywhere is welcome to participate in.
- mayneack 10y ago
  Through need based financial aid, these schools are very affordable for many of those students.
  - the_watcher 10y ago
    Once you get in. Unfortunately, it's often extremely expensive to build the resume required for getting into these schools in the first place.
    - aleeds 10y ago
      That's really the problem. Sure, its cheap and they have great financial aid, but they don't pay for the tutors and the "life changing" experiences in Africa the rich kids have.
      - SamReidHughes 10y ago
        This just ain't reality. Most kids don't get in because they took a trip to Africa. Parents that pay a ton of money on making their kids the perfect college applicant generally get a bad deal and are a small minority.
        John23832 10y ago
        It's not about paying to pad the application. There are legit methods of expanding your kid's world/mind. Those method generally cost more money than sitting in the house all summer watching tv.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
zhiyuan 10y ago
The Penn link links to MIT, bug or feature?
- katm 10y ago
  Hah, thanks for catching. Fixed.
mmanulis 10y ago
Is there a way to request that a school be considered for a visit? I'm sure you'll get a ton of requests, but with ~ 2,500 4-year schools, it would be a "voting" exercise. It, should, give YC a more diverse exposure as well?
davidf18 10y ago
Kat Manalac, (Kate), I tried to sign up for Columbia (alum here in NYC) and it said all sold out. Other universities have spots. I'm on Columbia Entrepreneur email list and didn't see notification of the event. (Tried to pm katm but could not). Columbia University closed for snowstorm today. Any way I can sign up?
qwrusz 10y ago
Wall Street is also known for visiting and doing on-campus recruiting at only a very small list of target schools. Right or wrong every year we pick which schools to give this extra attention to and every year we debate if we are doing this right and if we should target schools at all. Entirely anecdotal, maybe obvious to some, but here's what I have experienced (I'll focus on STEM students): TL; DR I have had to visit and do on-campus recruiting. The top of top talented, skilled, smart student could be at any school. Every school has dumb as fuck kids too. But there is higher % chance the valedictorian at Stanford is smarter than the valedictorian at San Jose State. But who cares, when a cream of the crop student ends up at non-target school for whatever, they know how to work with those circumstances and get to where they want to go. I think if you know how to "disrupt" or "hack" or whatever stupid word we are using these days, it is easier to stand out as applicant from a no-name school. Good luck 1. The practical stuff: The "budget" of time and people and money to do recruiting and campus outreach is not unlimited. There are only so many hours in a day, you can't visit every school and meet every kid. 2. School visits are worth doing, for the students to learn about a company and for a company to get to know a few of the students better. Companies that do visit schools can attract more applicants and higher quality applicants. 3. The school someone went to tells you ZERO about how talented or skilled that individual is as an engineer or potential founder or employee. Zero. The best person for a job or to fund could have studied at Stanford or San Jose State or Joe Bummwarts University. There are plenty of kids at no-name schools that crush the skills of kids at top-ranked schools. (Also the whole "but the department's reputation is good" doesn't matter nor do grades tell you very much either - I don't even care if someone has a degree to be honest - but that's another story). 4. If a top company or VC or Grad school is looking for those best of the best young people; they often seem to be the type of student that can self-teach and have done so. They are frequently miles ahead of their classmates at their school and any school in terms of knowledge. They know things the schools don't even teach. 5. Unfortunately where someone went to school still matters for several reasons. I'm sorry if this offends. There are many reasons your schools makes a difference. I won't go into things like PR pedigree and friendships and alumni networks. And just to be clear there are a shitload of dumb people at every school, tons and tons of dumb people at the top ranked-schools. Spot them a mile away. But: when you are looking for the one or two or three students who are miles ahead of other people their same age, the % chance that person is going to be at a top-ranked school is slightly higher. i.e. if you are looking for the smartest kid in the sandbox, the odds the valedictorian at Stanford is smarter than the valedictorian at San Jose State is higher on average, not guarantee, but enough to say it's more likely. 6. Lastly, I'll just say in my experience when legit talented students ends up at a non-target school for whatever reason (family, cost, bad luck, whatever) they are mature and they know why they are there and they know what it means and they know what they need to do to succeed at their goal under these circumstances - these are not the students you see complaining about school recruiting being unfair. It's the idiots and the average people who complain the loudest about this :( Those talented students at no-name school are aware of how the world works and that life's not fair. They know how much better they are than their peers and they know the school they went to will not matter. They also know they will have to take a couple different steps to get where they want to go vs. target-schools kids. (it's a known secret it's actually much easier for a no-name school students to stand out). They seem to know what to do: they just keep quiet about it, they network with the people who get it and they find the other doors. Sorry. Look around. Students from no-name non-target schools get top jobs right out of school and they get funded and they get into a top grad schools all the time, every year. If you don't understand how they did what they did, that's the point. Seriously, no offense some people are more skilled and talented than others. But if you are so smart and happened to have gone to a crap school, but want to get in somewhere difficult, then figure it out, many others have before you. If you feel you need someone to come visit your school to get something you are missing the point of how this works. Good luck YC SUMMA CLASS

46 points by katm 10y ago

ilamont 10y ago

Does YC ever visit non-top-tier schools?

akhilcacharya 10y ago
I attended their office hours with Kevin Hale at my school - NC State, very far from a top tier school. Neat experience, but [0] they never posted about visiting on HackerNews. [0] Apparently they did in their Winter Tour last year, my mistake.
- katm 10y ago
  We announced the visit to NC State last year: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/
  - akhilcacharya 10y ago
    My mistake, must have missed that. I found out through our school's entrepreneurship program.
- jnate15 10y ago
  NC State is more qualified than you give credit. US News ranks NC State's Engineering program higher than Duke's. Duke / NC State / UNC are three strong universities. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings/page+2 http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...
  - akhilcacharya 10y ago
    Eh - quality of education and research aside, and it's fine in that regard, it still doesn't have the same prestige as the other two by a long shot.
    - jnate15 10y ago
      I have experience with NC State, Duke, UNC. At the undergraduate level there isn't much difference between the three (except basketball).
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
John23832 10y ago
I was just going to ask this. Silicon valley would be better served (and better serve others) when they stop giving hand service to the same schools they they went to and the people who think and act exactly like them.
- katm 10y ago
  We try to mix it up. Here's where we went last winter: https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/winter-2016-college-tour/. And last fall: https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-office-hours-in-11-countries-this-fall/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-office-hours-in-11-countries...
  - ilamont 10y ago
    When YC posts about visiting the top-tier schools, it gives the impression that they are the only schools that matter. And I have to ask: If the Ivies/MIT/Stanford aren't the only schools that matter, why call them out in a post that's distinct from the winter tour post?
    - katm 10y ago
      I'm calling out the schools this time because when I submitted a post titled "YC Winter Tour 2016" last year, this is how it performed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10881402.
      - John23832 10y ago
        Is there a requirement that YC announcements perform well? I'm not trying to be negative, but just announce all the tours the same way and let people make of it what they will.
        katm 10y ago
        No requirement. But why not try something different if the first version doesn't work well?

anotherarray 10y ago

What about the other 99% of talented students that couldn't afford these schools?

katm 10y ago
We do office hours in cities that anyone is welcome to sign up for. We're also going to be opening up signups for the MOOC shortly that anyone anywhere is welcome to participate in.
mayneack 10y ago
Through need based financial aid, these schools are very affordable for many of those students.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  Once you get in. Unfortunately, it's often extremely expensive to build the resume required for getting into these schools in the first place.
  - aleeds 10y ago
    That's really the problem. Sure, its cheap and they have great financial aid, but they don't pay for the tutors and the "life changing" experiences in Africa the rich kids have.
    - SamReidHughes 10y ago
      This just ain't reality. Most kids don't get in because they took a trip to Africa. Parents that pay a ton of money on making their kids the perfect college applicant generally get a bad deal and are a small minority.
      - John23832 10y ago
        It's not about paying to pad the application. There are legit methods of expanding your kid's world/mind. Those method generally cost more money than sitting in the house all summer watching tv.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

zhiyuan 10y ago

The Penn link links to MIT, bug or feature?

katm 10y ago
Hah, thanks for catching. Fixed.

mmanulis 10y ago

Is there a way to request that a school be considered for a visit? I'm sure you'll get a ton of requests, but with ~ 2,500 4-year schools, it would be a "voting" exercise. It, should, give YC a more diverse exposure as well?

davidf18 10y ago

Kat Manalac, (Kate), I tried to sign up for Columbia (alum here in NYC) and it said all sold out. Other universities have spots. I'm on Columbia Entrepreneur email list and didn't see notification of the event. (Tried to pm katm but could not). Columbia University closed for snowstorm today. Any way I can sign up?

qwrusz 10y ago

Wall Street is also known for visiting and doing on-campus recruiting at only a very small list of target schools. Right or wrong every year we pick which schools to give this extra attention to and every year we debate if we are doing this right and if we should target schools at all. Entirely anecdotal, maybe obvious to some, but here's what I have experienced (I'll focus on STEM students): TL; DR I have had to visit and do on-campus recruiting. The top of top talented, skilled, smart student could be at any school. Every school has dumb as fuck kids too. But there is higher % chance the valedictorian at Stanford is smarter than the valedictorian at San Jose State. But who cares, when a cream of the crop student ends up at non-target school for whatever, they know how to work with those circumstances and get to where they want to go. I think if you know how to "disrupt" or "hack" or whatever stupid word we are using these days, it is easier to stand out as applicant from a no-name school. Good luck 1. The practical stuff: The "budget" of time and people and money to do recruiting and campus outreach is not unlimited. There are only so many hours in a day, you can't visit every school and meet every kid. 2. School visits are worth doing, for the students to learn about a company and for a company to get to know a few of the students better. Companies that do visit schools can attract more applicants and higher quality applicants. 3. The school someone went to tells you ZERO about how talented or skilled that individual is as an engineer or potential founder or employee. Zero. The best person for a job or to fund could have studied at Stanford or San Jose State or Joe Bummwarts University. There are plenty of kids at no-name schools that crush the skills of kids at top-ranked schools. (Also the whole "but the department's reputation is good" doesn't matter nor do grades tell you very much either - I don't even care if someone has a degree to be honest - but that's another story). 4. If a top company or VC or Grad school is looking for those best of the best young people; they often seem to be the type of student that can self-teach and have done so. They are frequently miles ahead of their classmates at their school and any school in terms of knowledge. They know things the schools don't even teach. 5. Unfortunately where someone went to school still matters for several reasons. I'm sorry if this offends. There are many reasons your schools makes a difference. I won't go into things like PR pedigree and friendships and alumni networks. And just to be clear there are a shitload of dumb people at every school, tons and tons of dumb people at the top ranked-schools. Spot them a mile away. But: when you are looking for the one or two or three students who are miles ahead of other people their same age, the % chance that person is going to be at a top-ranked school is slightly higher. i.e. if you are looking for the smartest kid in the sandbox, the odds the valedictorian at Stanford is smarter than the valedictorian at San Jose State is higher on average, not guarantee, but enough to say it's more likely. 6. Lastly, I'll just say in my experience when legit talented students ends up at a non-target school for whatever reason (family, cost, bad luck, whatever) they are mature and they know why they are there and they know what it means and they know what they need to do to succeed at their goal under these circumstances - these are not the students you see complaining about school recruiting being unfair. It's the idiots and the average people who complain the loudest about this :( Those talented students at no-name school are aware of how the world works and that life's not fair. They know how much better they are than their peers and they know the school they went to will not matter. They also know they will have to take a couple different steps to get where they want to go vs. target-schools kids. (it's a known secret it's actually much easier for a no-name school students to stand out). They seem to know what to do: they just keep quiet about it, they network with the people who get it and they find the other doors. Sorry. Look around. Students from no-name non-target schools get top jobs right out of school and they get funded and they get into a top grad schools all the time, every year. If you don't understand how they did what they did, that's the point. Seriously, no offense some people are more skilled and talented than others. But if you are so smart and happened to have gone to a crap school, but want to get in somewhere difficult, then figure it out, many others have before you. If you feel you need someone to come visit your school to get something you are missing the point of how this works. Good luck YC SUMMA CLASS