I've talked to people within YC who say just the opposite - that Stanford has a special relationship with YC. I've seen a nearly exact copy of a project I pitch

I've talked to people within YC who say just the opposite - that Stanford has a special relationship with YC. I've seen a nearly exact copy of a project I pitched to YC get accepted a year later, but this time with Stanford founders. And I'm not using that as a stand-in for elite schools in general. The requirement that founders physically locate themselves the bay is as big a factor as anything. Just because non-traditional people get in sometimes does not mean that there is not still selection bias towards a particular group. If you are so sure about your claims, then you should call for YC to release the data to prove it. Specifically addressing the questions below. 1. What percentage of all founding teams had at least one member who attended Stanford? (Degree not even necessary - just attended at some point) 2. What percentage of all applicants who had a team member with a Stanford connection and got interviews? 3. What percentage of all applicants who had a team member with a Stanford connection got accepted? Edit: Also, in case it wasn't clear - run the same data for any other schools with a high volume of applicants. Questions 2 and 3 should be roughly equal if there is no bias. And I'd prefer to see the data over time as well. Doesn't have to be each applicantion period, but at in least groups per year to see if trends changed.