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> I mean, I didn't even graduate college :P Yes, but did you go to one of those colleges where dropping out is even better than graduating? Because most of us

> I mean, I didn't even graduate college :P Yes, but did you go to one of those colleges where dropping out is even better than graduating? Because most of us didn't even get the chance to drop out of one of those.

llamaimperative 3y ago
I'm a YC founder and I dropped out of not-one-of-those colleges (RPI). My cofounder dropped out of high school. Why not just give it a shot? Find the powerful parts of your story (I'm sure they exist) and share them! We applied, as GP advocates for, mostly to sharpen our thinking. Just the application process would've been worth the time, even if we had gotten declined immediately. The interview 10x'd that value, then the YC batch itself was another multiple on top of that.
- _delirium 3y ago
  I would definitely count RPI as one of "those" colleges! I guess everyone has a different list, but for me, RPI is in the same category as Rose-Hulman, Olin, Harvey Mudd, etc. Perhaps not Ivy League level in the sense of being a household name, but still known among people in the field.
  - tobinfricke 3y ago
    The "Ivy League" consists of precisely these eight schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Honestly I feel like some of these are negative indicators when it comes to engineering cred. Meanwhile, stellar engineering schools like Caltech, Stanford, and MIT are in a league of their own. This comment is mostly to complain that using "Ivy League" as a shorthand for prestigious engineering schools is inaccurate.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - bckr 3y ago
      Silicon League?
  - llamaimperative 3y ago
    It’s definitely a great, high caliber school. But it’s not one of the dropout-porn inspiring ones like Stanford/Harvard. For example, a lot of people drop out of RPI because it’s actually difficult to get good grades there (not why I did it FWIW). That’s not why anyone drops out of Harvard.
jacobwg 3y ago
Not that I'm aware of, no, just the local state school. My impression of the YC application process was that it was way more holistic than just educational background.
- threeseed 3y ago
  YC approval process is pretty much this: - Do I even understand your idea. - Have you talked to customers. - Am I impressed in your use of time. - Do I believe that your team is capable of delivering. - Is it a good idea. Most people can't get past the first two but obsess over the last two.
  - tdfirth 3y ago
    This is the process. They want people with high agency, a bias to action, and who make progress in the face of uncertainty.
chaostheory 3y ago
This is a really good point because the vast majority of YC members (97-99%) either graduated or dropped out from Ivy League level schools, or really highly rated state schools. (Dropouts are also a very small minority.) There are YC members who didn’t come from prestigious schools, but they are outliers. Maybe it’s changed the last 4 years? That’s when I stopped tracking it.
- dang 3y ago
  That's definitely not true. Where did you get these numbers?
  - chaostheory 3y ago
    I had a side project that was meant to be an “IMDB of everything”. For my initial focus, I targeted YC, its companies and members. This involved looking at a lot of LinkedIn profiles and recording their alma mater because I wanted to give credit to organizations as well and not just individuals. That’s how I came to that conclusion. The result surprised me as well but it also makes sense. Investors would be more eager to invest if the founders were already part of some of their networks. People from these schools also tend to be more inclined to be higher achievers than other places on average. The only time where there was more educational diversity was probably only during the 1st two years of YC. Has it changed in recent years? I would rather be wrong on this one.
    - vertis 3y ago
      Assuming it's true/accurate it seems like the kind of research you should share (for free or otherwise) with YC, because it seems like the kind of bias that they would be interested in correcting for. Not just from an equality perspective, but also that good ideas and founders can come from anywhere. Top Schools are going to produce one type of founder and idea. People that have walked different paths, another.
      - chaostheory 3y ago

llamaimperative 3y ago

I'm a YC founder and I dropped out of not-one-of-those colleges (RPI). My cofounder dropped out of high school. Why not just give it a shot? Find the powerful parts of your story (I'm sure they exist) and share them! We applied, as GP advocates for, mostly to sharpen our thinking. Just the application process would've been worth the time, even if we had gotten declined immediately. The interview 10x'd that value, then the YC batch itself was another multiple on top of that.

_delirium 3y ago
I would definitely count RPI as one of "those" colleges! I guess everyone has a different list, but for me, RPI is in the same category as Rose-Hulman, Olin, Harvey Mudd, etc. Perhaps not Ivy League level in the sense of being a household name, but still known among people in the field.
- tobinfricke 3y ago
  The "Ivy League" consists of precisely these eight schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Honestly I feel like some of these are negative indicators when it comes to engineering cred. Meanwhile, stellar engineering schools like Caltech, Stanford, and MIT are in a league of their own. This comment is mostly to complain that using "Ivy League" as a shorthand for prestigious engineering schools is inaccurate.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - bckr 3y ago
    Silicon League?
- llamaimperative 3y ago
  It’s definitely a great, high caliber school. But it’s not one of the dropout-porn inspiring ones like Stanford/Harvard. For example, a lot of people drop out of RPI because it’s actually difficult to get good grades there (not why I did it FWIW). That’s not why anyone drops out of Harvard.

jacobwg 3y ago

Not that I'm aware of, no, just the local state school. My impression of the YC application process was that it was way more holistic than just educational background.

threeseed 3y ago
YC approval process is pretty much this: - Do I even understand your idea. - Have you talked to customers. - Am I impressed in your use of time. - Do I believe that your team is capable of delivering. - Is it a good idea. Most people can't get past the first two but obsess over the last two.
- tdfirth 3y ago
  This is the process. They want people with high agency, a bias to action, and who make progress in the face of uncertainty.

chaostheory 3y ago

This is a really good point because the vast majority of YC members (97-99%) either graduated or dropped out from Ivy League level schools, or really highly rated state schools. (Dropouts are also a very small minority.) There are YC members who didn’t come from prestigious schools, but they are outliers. Maybe it’s changed the last 4 years? That’s when I stopped tracking it.

dang 3y ago
That's definitely not true. Where did you get these numbers?
- chaostheory 3y ago
  I had a side project that was meant to be an “IMDB of everything”. For my initial focus, I targeted YC, its companies and members. This involved looking at a lot of LinkedIn profiles and recording their alma mater because I wanted to give credit to organizations as well and not just individuals. That’s how I came to that conclusion. The result surprised me as well but it also makes sense. Investors would be more eager to invest if the founders were already part of some of their networks. People from these schools also tend to be more inclined to be higher achievers than other places on average. The only time where there was more educational diversity was probably only during the 1st two years of YC. Has it changed in recent years? I would rather be wrong on this one.
  - vertis 3y ago
    Assuming it's true/accurate it seems like the kind of research you should share (for free or otherwise) with YC, because it seems like the kind of bias that they would be interested in correcting for. Not just from an equality perspective, but also that good ideas and founders can come from anywhere. Top Schools are going to produce one type of founder and idea. People that have walked different paths, another.
    - chaostheory 3y ago