Early Decision • Hacker News Board

Re: Early Decision

#11

Post by gist » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:17 PM UTC

The down side of this is that someone accepted then will focus on the startup instead of finishing up their studies. You could argue that would happen either way but I think 'having it in the can' means more chance of doing so. And perhaps also not uncovering and turning down other opportunities or overlooking them. (Similar to when you buy a house you are not going to any other open houses..ditto for buying a car and many other things).

How are you supposed to focus on learning and school work if you already known that you are getting in YC to do a startup? Which more often than not is going to fail instead of focusing on your studies which you are paying big dollars for (potentially at least).

Also to a smaller degree you are giving up info to YC which in theory would also allow them to identify a trend to fund someone else ahead of you. (Relevant if they turn you down).

Re: Early Decision

#12

Post by will_brown » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:21 PM UTC

Interestingly enough I got a YC email yesterday asking me to apply for the current batch.

I’d never received that type of email from YC in the past, and immediately thought their application numbers must be dropping. After all YC historically seemed to market and advertise the fact that statistically it’s more difficult to get in than Harvard.

This announcement the very next day seems to support YC is looking for more applications. Then again maybe the total application numbers and acceptance rate are public info and I’m way off.

Re: Early Decision

#13

Post by stefanpie » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:33 PM UTC

dcole2929 wrote: post #9

codingdave wrote: post #7

Early decision plans for colleges are not without their disadvantages, the biggest being that it forces a decision before the student has the time to know what all of their options and offers may be. This is frequently mitigated by financial aid packages that compensate for the loss of choice, but even so, such plans have the downside of not knowing what other packages might have come to fruition. YC seems to be walk…

It doesn't appear to be binding so there really isn't any downside I can see.

Then isn't that more analogous to Early Action which is nonbinding yet still being able to apply and hear your decision earlier.

Re: Early Decision

#14

Post by pkaye » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:33 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #10

klinskyc wrote: post #8

When I read the title, I assumed it worked like college early decision, where admission is binding. This is not the case, so this sounds like a great thing for YC to be doing

Things are different where I'm from (Canada) so please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but... in what way is early college admission binding on students? Even if a student accepts an offer, can't they just not turn up?

Early admissions are not binding (compared to early action which is less common.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_admission Many colleges also have a waitlist for admissions to backfill from.

Re: Early Decision

#15

Post by frisco » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:48 PM UTC

"Early Decision" implies that if a student is accepted they are bound to attend that school. It's offered by colleges primarily because it greatly simplifies their yield planning. (Colleges admit many more than they actually can accommodate since they know many won't matriculate.)

This program should really be called Early Action, which is non-binding!

Re: Early Decision

#16

Post by lutorm » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 7:55 PM UTC

frisco wrote: post #15

"Early Decision" implies that if a student is accepted they are bound to attend that school. It's offered by colleges primarily because it greatly simplifies their yield planning. (Colleges admit many more than they actually can accommodate since they know many won't matriculate.) This program should really be called Early Action, which is non-binding!

You actually go into a legally binding contract to attend the school? I've never heard of such a thing. Do they sue you for breach if you don't show up?

Re: Early Decision

#17

Post by dalton » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 8:03 PM UTC

will_brown wrote: post #12

Interestingly enough I got a YC email yesterday asking me to apply for the current batch. I’d never received that type of email from YC in the past, and immediately thought their application numbers must be dropping. After all YC historically seemed to market and advertise the fact that statistically it’s more difficult to get in than Harvard. This announcement the very next day seems to support YC is looking for mor…

Yes, you are off. Our apps submitted metric is growing.

The reason we started sending out emails to remind people of the deadlines is the sheer # of founders we talk to in person and over email that complain that they missed the application deadline and they didnt know when the date would be.

Questions about when the app deadline is, if you can submit late, when the deadline is for the following batch, etc is the #1 most common type of question in our support queue, and sending out reminders seemed like the best solution.

Re: Early Decision

#18

Post by joncalhoun » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 8:18 PM UTC

lutorm wrote: post #16

frisco wrote: post #15

"Early Decision" implies that if a student is accepted they are bound to attend that school. It's offered by colleges primarily because it greatly simplifies their yield planning. (Colleges admit many more than they actually can accommodate since they know many won't matriculate.) This program should really be called Early Action, which is non-binding!

You actually go into a legally binding contract to attend the school? I've never heard of such a thing. Do they sue you for breach if you don't show up?

If you don't show with "good" reason (finances, health issue, etc) they usually do nothing.

If you don't show with a "bad" reason then what they do varies, but I've never heard of someone being sued. Instead it seems to be things like, "we will tell your high school and it may be mentioned if you try to apply to another university."

Re: Early Decision

#19

Post by pithic » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

I'm surprised to hear YC courting would-be founders who are more interested in finishing college (grad school, even!). Affinity to the norms of academic institutions (not unlike large corporations) and to converging on their pre-formulated problems would seem incompatible with the traits of successful startup founders.

It's even more surprising given research correlating founder age and industry experience to the likelihood of big exits. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/younger-vs-...

This solidifies the view that YC is modeled as a "founder college" for the young and cash-starved, weened as they are on ready-made social support systems, institutional authority, and formal rewards.

Re: Early Decision

#20

Post by davemp » Thu, Sep 20, 2018, 8:49 PM UTC

Odd. This seems to go against one of PG's essays.

> School

>

> That's what I'd advise college students to do, rather than trying to learn about "entrepreneurship." "Entrepreneurship" is something you learn best by doing it. The examples of the most successful founders make that clear. What you should be spending your time on in college is ratcheting yourself into the future. College is an incomparable opportunity to do that. What a waste to sacrifice an opportunity to solve the hard part of starting a startup — becoming the sort of person who can have organic startup ideas — by spending time learning about the easy part. Especially since you won't even really learn about it, any more than you'd learn about sex in a class. All you'll learn is the words for things.

[1]: http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html