Interestingly, what you ended up pointing out is that SV (and, really, the world in general) is most friendly towards people who are born successful. Which is s

Interestingly, what you ended up pointing out is that SV (and, really, the world in general) is most friendly towards people who are born successful. Which is something I think we all implicitly already understand. College admissions, and especially elite colleges, are careful to admit only those people who have already demonstrated successful qualities. Jobs, Woz, Gates and Zuckerberg were accepted into these schools because they were already successful people. Their later success in business is a result of the same successful qualities that their respective schools saw in them to originally admit them as students. So, it is unsurprising they were eligible to be students at these elite schools given their successes, but the eliteness of the school ends up being inconsequential. It was who they are that allowed them to succeed in both gaining access to these elite schools and finding success in business. Successful people are successful.