How would YC know if someone is poor when they apply? Just by what school they attended? I don't know the stats but I'd be shocked if the majority of YC's most recent accepted class were from ''Ivies'' (a very tiny population).

I went to school with many brilliant but ''poor'' kids on full-ride scholarships. From my perspective the biggest barrier to them becoming entrepreneurs wasn't that nobody would fund them but rather that the immediate salaried incomes available to them upon graduation were life-changing for them and their families and ''too good to pass up'' in their personal risk-adjusted calculus.