That's not really how the Ivy League works. Ivy League admissions balances a number of conflicting goals: 1. Legacies: this is the single biggest group of admi

That's not really how the Ivy League works. Ivy League admissions balances a number of conflicting goals: 1. Legacies: this is the single biggest group of admitted students (eg ~36% of Harvard's undergraduate class). This by itself destroys any merit argument; 2. Athletes: people forget or don't know that the Ivy League is an athletics conference, despite the academic prestige and social proof. Ivy League schools don't offer true atheltics scholarships like you might get for D1 football recruits at, say, UAlabama or USC, but it is an important part of the admissions process; 3. The nebulous idea of "diversity". I don't mean in the DEI sense because it's much broader than that, like you can have better odds of getting an acceptance from an Ivy League school by simply coming from a low-population (and thus low applicant) state like Wyoming or Montana rather than Texas, California or New York; 4. Extra-curriculars, many of which are a proxy for wealth and privilege. For example, not everyone can do an unpaid internship living in NYC or LA or take unpaid opportunities requiring international travel; 5. Other random factors like filling out an orchestra. There's an old cliche that you should study the viola instead of the violin if you want to get into Harvard because there are fewer viola players. 6. Whether admissions believe you will enhance the reputation they've so carefully cultivated. An Ivy League degree is a powerful form of social proof. Being a Harvard grad will help you get into any graduate program. The prestige of your medical school greatly affects your ability to get a residency in a competitive specialty. The point is that social proof diminishes if the perception of your graduates turns sour so admissions will absolutely look at how may reflect on them in future. The only commonality with VC funding seems to be the power of social proof. That is, MIT and Stanford grads will have an easier time. VC firms will go and do presentations and recruiting at those schools. That doesn't mean you can't get funded if you went to an unremarkable state school. It just means it's a more difficult road. Stanford or MIT will make it easier to get an internship and thus a returning offer at a prestigious Big Tech company. You'll potentially know more of the people in the VC and startup spaces because you went to school with them or someone they know. There's a real network effect here. But the point is the similarity to Ivy League recruiting seems to be fairly superficial.