Simon Willison’s Weblog

How important is my alma mater to Ycombinator?

3rd February 2012

My answer to How important is my alma mater to Ycombinator? on Quora

It’s really not that important—it might help a tiny bit to get to the interview, but if you look at the questions on the application form they are much more heavily skewed towards stuff that you have achieved and problems you have solved. The interview itself is almost all about your idea and your team.

Plenty of people who go through YC come from non-ivy-league schools—some haven’t been to university at all.