I joined the last batch (winter 2013) after having been rejected from the prior one. The rejection sucked, I questioned my programming skills, my legitimacy as

I joined the last batch (winter 2013) after having been rejected from the prior one. The rejection sucked, I questioned my programming skills, my legitimacy as a real developer. Turns out I'm just awful at interviewing - spent most of the time talking about startups for some reason, probably because it seemed safer than exposing my relative programming inexperience at the time. I'll second the sentiment that admissions are based purely on fit for Hacker School, not likelihood of making money for them, gender, or any other criteria. I just came across as too much of a "startup guy" first time around in the limited interview time.