HN Explorer

Ask HN: How much does education matter?

8 points by p01nd3xt3r ↗ HN
Someone in a previous thread mentioned that they noticed that many of the people from YC companies come from Harvard, Berkley, MIT and other top schools.

Does going to one of these schools make you more likely to be accepted by YC?

What if you did not go to college at all? I graduated high school early and started working for software companies; does this make me less likely to be accepted into YC?

8 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 38.0 ms ] thread
jacquesm
I have yet to see this make a difference. The VCs that I work with look at the team, that's for sure. It won't hurt if you have a good education. But the focus is on the business, how well the team works as a team and how solid the business is put together.

Given the choice between a startup done by 3 guys with degrees from some prestigious university but with no solid business behind it or by 3 high school drop-outs with a can-do attitude and a lot of drive I'm pretty sure they'd go for the latter.

Where a university will help you is that you usually have access to the 'old boys network', if none of the co-founders has such access it may take a bit more effort to get the doors open.

mburney
It seems more like correlation than causation. A lot of ambitious people go to top schools so you also see them doing startups, but there are really no secrets they learn at those schools that give them an edge business-wise.
timwiseman
Agreed, but for the same reason it seems like that means it is a good place to meet other ambitious people if you are looking for cofounders, the children or possible investors, or other forms of networking in general.

Of course, that is my opinion as someone who has neither founded a startup nor gone to a prestigious school.

TallGuyShort
I can't speak from experience regarding what actually makes a difference to YC, but I think if there's any group in the world that places more emphasis on real talent and experience, and less emphasis on a degree from a prestigious university - it's hackers.
tigerthink
In my opinion this is a good argument for getting a degree in something somewhat unrelated to computer science like math or engineering.
icey
I'm not an investor so take this with a grain of salt, BUT:

Investors care about 1 thing: will you get them a return on their investment. They may say they care about a lot of other stuff too, but that's thing #1, always.

A degree can help them determine whether or not you've got the goods; but that's not the only thing - it's just a factor.

When they talk about investing in a team, not an idea; they mean "Will these people be capable of using our money as leverage?" and "Will they get results?". If you don't have the pedigree then you'd better be able to show them _something_ to tell them that you've got what it takes to get shit done.

prpon
A startup I worked was started by HBS guys and hired professor from MIT as their first employee. They pretty much interviewed and hired folks from the top 5 math and computer science schools only.

I looked up to these guys because of an inherent bias that, I never went to these schools and these guys must be gooood. After working with lots of them for a few years, if there is one thing I can tell you its this. HBS didn't teach the founders anything about startups or the business world. Ivy league schools didn't teach much about how to deliver a product to the guys.

BTW, The worst hacker in the group was the professor :-)