My personal story on the unethical behaviors of the TechCode accelerator
medium.com
medium.com
It sounds like a new program that overpromised, didn't plan well, and struggled to deliver would have been a similar experience.
Reputation*3.
YC, 500 and some others. Doing due-diligence, building rapport with key people and managing expectations can help. Also, big names have a lot more to lose (rep) and so tend to be safer bets.