The effects of uncertainties in determining the loss of neutrinos and the generation of entropy during the collapse of a stellar core are studied using a simple spherically-symmetric homologous collapse model with an improved treatment for the excited nuclei. It is found that the neutrino loss and entropy generation are not altogether insensitive to most variations of the assumptions regarding the input physics, collapse rate and initial conditions and in particular the need to determine accurately beta capture rates in stellar collapse is pointed out.