Ask PG/HN :Why is the upcoming batch referred to as Winter 2012 funding?

[sassyboy]

See here http://ycombinator.com/apply.html Why not Winter 2011? Because the batch will start in December 2011 I would have thought it should be called winter 2011 funding? If I had applied to grad school this year, I would be joining in Fall 2011 and not Fall 2012, right? Is this a cultural thing with the US or is there any specific reason why its called Winter 2012? Have previous funding rounds been named similarly? Surely, you don't believe the world is going to end in Winter 2012 to move Winter 2012 a year earlier!

[mooism2]

"[T]he winter 2012 funding cycle ... will take place ... from January through March 2012."

Even if it starts in December, the majority of the time is in 2012.

"Fall" is vaguely September---December, isn't it? (I've always assumed "fall" is the American word for "autumn", am I wrong?)

[sassyboy]

Agreed that the majority of the time is in 2012 and that could very well be the reason why its named that way. Just that when I first read Winter 2012 I was under the impression that it is for next years batch.

[mooism2]

If I worked for YC and got to name the funding cycle I'd call it Winter 2011/12; both Winter 2011 and Winter 2012 are ambiguous imo. But I don't.

[ig1]

It's always been named that way since they started, and I guess once they started it was much harder to change.