> I have literally zero evidence to go from, but I suspect that Y Combinator is like Harvard or Yale: they could get rid of the group that they actually admit and go for the next tier, then achieve similar outcomes.
I agree with this, and I don't think that actually needs much evidence. It follows straight from assuming that:
- YC has prestige and is recognized as a top accelerator (which is true)
- YC is competent at picking strong applicants (which also appears to be true)
- there is no magical cutoff in the applicant pool where applicants below it are significantly worse than above it, and the cutoff point happens to be exactly at the point where YC stops accepting people (proposing the opposite would require serious evidence)
I agree with this, and I don't think that actually needs much evidence. It follows straight from assuming that:
- YC has prestige and is recognized as a top accelerator (which is true)
- YC is competent at picking strong applicants (which also appears to be true)
- there is no magical cutoff in the applicant pool where applicants below it are significantly worse than above it, and the cutoff point happens to be exactly at the point where YC stops accepting people (proposing the opposite would require serious evidence)