Personally, I am a fan of accelerator programs.  There is a healthy debate on this topic, but I think that being intensely pushed by good mentors for 3 months or so can only improve the chances of success!

This morning I came across an interesting accelerator ranking.  A group of professors (from strong programs) created something called the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project. The lead is Yael Hochberg, who used to be at Cornell and is now at Rice.  Definitely research and stats oriented and produced.  You might enjoy taking a look, particularly as the presentation is very nonacademic!

I read about the project in Term Sheet, which is a great daily on VC.  You can subscribe here.