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>For high school students with aspirations in the tech field it is like the MIT, Caltech and Stanford all rolled into one.

What does it mean?

does PG teach maths and stuff? (/s)

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I think it's meant as a comment on how much opportunity in the startup/VC world being a part of YC brings to one's life/career. You get access to great mentors/ex-founders with their strong networks of influence, you work alongside other above-average entrepreneurs, you present in front of a huge and reputable audience of VCs, wearing YC's stamp of approval, and on and on... It's like winning the opportunity lotto, much the same as with those top-tier universities, where the brand and the network is more than half the value, not the lectures themselves.

>It's like winning the opportunity lotto, much the same as with those top-tier universities,

is it actually this good?

That depends on your life goals.

Like the other commenter said, I guess it really depends on who you are and what type of business you're building. Personally, with the benefit of hindsight, I'm almost certain if my startup made it to YC (we failed at the interview stage many years ago), it would have ruined both the startup (at least the product at the time) and our personal lives. We were too "green", too different culturally, in an industry that moves too slow. Going the "European" VC speed really helped us get to a healthier business and product foundation, but it took many years. To paraphrase my original statement, it's like winning the opportunity lotto, but opportunity isn't success. You get a lot of great opportunities handed to you, but you still have to know how to take advantage of them, and they might not be the type of opportunities you want.

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