this seems obvious, but its not for some. Should you get an MBA from Harvard? the material is probably very similar to other materials in other programs. But, the contacts you can make are probably priceless. Are you a shy individual who isn't going to put effort into meeting people, growing a network? probably not worth it because the actual advantage is the people, not the degree.

A classic example I use is I attended Arizona State for a bachelors and masters in electrical engineering. A friend of mine attended Arizona State for bachelors and Stanford for a masters. We both learned the same material. He had more opportunities to meet good contacts and use those resources to expand his future. Did he? no, he ended up at a defense contractor back in AZ. Instead he had larger student loans to pay back. The big fancy schools have big fancy networks of people, but if you're not going to leverage it, its not worth it. Sounds like YC is very similar.

I recently finished my MBA at Harvard and I have a lot of connections but surprisingly finding it hard to get the first check from institutional VCs.

P.S this is not a recent market phenomenon

Is being a defense contractor that bad?

No but you don't need a Stanford degree to do it. They hire out of local areas. My girlfriend is attending ASU virtually right now and I've been really impressed with their program. When she said she was learning Matlab in a fairly normal math course I had a bit of a revelation about the defense partners of the school.

Plus what's the long term on that?

5 years out he's doing defense work in AZ... but 20 years out he's flexing that Master's to get CTO roles, and making connections at the local Cornell / Stanford / MIT club, etc. etc.