It wouldn't surprise me if a very large majority of YC applicants did NOT go to the Ivy League.
Regardless of whether students/graduates of those schools are smarter, from what I've heard there is much less of an entrepreneurial spirit in the Ivies.
If anything, I would think YC has a bias towards schools like MIT, Berkeley, CalTech, Stanford, UIUC, etc., none of which are in the Ivy League.
(And by bias I don't mean an admissions bias, simply that a greater percentage of accepted teams go to these schools)
People from the 'top-tier' schools are shooting for a multitude of things besides entrepreneurial success. I graduated from UChicago, and it seemed as if a massive majority of my fellow students were going after law, banking, or academia. At my five-year reunion I was one of the only people I met not pursuing one of these paths. In addition, many students at these schools have some kind of anti-business ideology or another, so subtract them from the picture as well.
I agree that there are probably more great teams from the technical universities and high-end state schools than from the ivies and famous private universities.
Regardless of whether students/graduates of those schools are smarter, from what I've heard there is much less of an entrepreneurial spirit in the Ivies.
If anything, I would think YC has a bias towards schools like MIT, Berkeley, CalTech, Stanford, UIUC, etc., none of which are in the Ivy League.
(And by bias I don't mean an admissions bias, simply that a greater percentage of accepted teams go to these schools)