"It is difficult to tell if this is an indication that YC overwhelmingly prefers people from extremely prestigious name-brand universities, or only people from

"It is difficult to tell if this is an indication that YC overwhelmingly prefers people from extremely prestigious name-brand universities, or only people from said universities have any chance of being "connected" enough to get into YC." Neither. In our class (S12), there were founders from every background imaginable. I also know founders from other classes, and the same is true amongst that sample. If anything, YC founders seem a bit less "credentialed" than the Valley in general. To the extent that "name-brand" universities tend to graduate extremely smart, capable people, you'll find that they're over-represented in any sample of smart, capable people. But YC has no incentive to select for factors that don't correlate with outcome.