He built a $30M business at 18 — and still got 15 college rejection letters

Yadegari, a public school student from Roslyn, New York, had an early start. He began coding at age 7, was teaching lessons by 10, and had an app in the App Store by 12. Then, in his junior year of high school, he founded Cal AI , an app that can identify the calorie content of meals using images. The tool took off — fast.

“One million dollars of revenue. In the last 30 days … Was this hedonistic treadmill of capitalism what the rest of my life was designated for? … In the rejection of the collegiate path, I had unwittingly bound myself to another framework of expectations: The archetypal dropout founder,” he wrote in his college essay.

Despite building a multimillion-dollar business and creating jobs, Yadegari’s untraditional path didn’t seem to earn him favor with elite admissions offices.

18 years old
34 ACT
4.0 GPA
$30M ARR biz

Stanford ❌
MIT ❌
Harvard ❌
Yale ❌
WashU ❌
Columbia ❌
UPenn ❌
Princeton ❌
Duke ❌
USC ❌
Georgia Tech ✅
UVA ❌
NYU ❌
UT ✅
Vanderbilt ❌
Brown ❌
UMiami ✅
Cornell ❌

— Zach Yadegari (@zach_yadegari) April 1, 2025

“I’m convicted in my belief that the admissions offices are not adequately weighting building a company and opening up jobs compared to other extracurricular activities such as volunteer work,” he said.

Zach Yadegari seemed like the kind of applicant any top university would jump at: a 4.0 GPA, a 34 on the ACT, and a wildly successful startup under his belt — one that generated $30 million in its first year.

But when college decisions rolled in, the 18-year-old tech entrepreneur was stunned: he’d been rejected by 15 of the 18 schools he applied to, including nearly every elite institution in the country.

“I didn’t expect to be accepted to all of these colleges, however, I did expect to at least be accepted to a couple of the top schools I was applying to,” Yadegari told The New York Post. “I think that entrepreneurial accomplishments may not be fully appreciated.”


Yadegari applied early to the University of Pennsylvania — and was denied. Then came the rejections from Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, Brown, Cornell, and others. In total, 15 rejection letters.

“I held out hope for Stanford, but then when I opened their rejection letter, all of the prior rejections just flooded in and really hit me at once,” he said.

Eventually, he was accepted by just three schools: Georgia Tech, the University of Miami, and the University of Texas.

Alongside his admissions results, Yadegari shared his college essay on X (formerly Twitter), where his post received over 27 million views. In the piece, he reflected on how his perspective toward higher education had evolved.

“I began my own journey fiercely independent, determined to forge my own path,” he wrote. “Now, I see that individuality and connection are not opposites, but complements … In this next chapter, I want to learn from humans — both professors and students — not just from computers or textbooks.”


Online debate erupts

People were naturally perplexed by the situation, but some tried to console him. One said, “Chin-up, Zach. Consider yourself lucky to have dodged the bullet of so-called elite universities. @GeorgiaTech produces top engineers and entrepreneurs. Hit me up if you chose Atlanta as your home for the next 4 years. Bonus: vibrant #chabad community.”


Another wrote, “Wow this is so insane. Also just curious what’s your main motivation to still go to college when you’ve already done more than a lot of full time professionals?”


However, few others pointed out why the colleges might have rejected him. One argued, “personal statement indicates that you’re a high probability to drop out so they gave your spot to someone that actually wants to graduate college.”


Another said, “Your essays were smug and condescending. Congrats on the business though. College would be a waste of time unless you’re trying to party.”