Despite running a successful nutrition tracking app, 18-year-old Zach Yadegari has been rejected by several Ivy League schools and top U.S.universities, leaving many shocked. He is the co-founder and CEO of Cal AI, an app that helps users track calories by snapping photos of their food, generating $30 million in yearly revenue.

Although 18-year-old Zach Yadegari has a perfect 4.0 GPA and runs a multi-million-dollar startup, he was still rejected by several top U.S. universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. Yadegari, the founder of the nutrition-tracking app Cal AI, shared his rejection list on X, sparking debate and surprise. Even Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian questioned why elite schools turned him down, especially since Forbes recognized his app as a major disruptor in the industry.

Rejected by top colleges

Yadegari’s applications were rejected by Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania. Other elite institutions, including Stanford and MIT, also denied him admission.

Zach Yadegari was accepted into Georgia Tech, one of the top engineering colleges in the U.S., and the University of Miami. Many people on X were shocked that he was rejected by so many top schools, while some blamed his attitude and weak college essay. "Wow, this is crazy," wrote X user Sherry Jiang. "That’s nuts," said tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian.

Yadegari shared his college admissions essay on X, where he admitted that he once thought higher education wasn’t necessary. He started coding at age 7, launched his first app at 12, and by 16, had already sold a successful online gaming business. In high school, he co-founded Cal AI, an app that uses AI to track calories from food photos. The app quickly became the fastest-growing in its category, earning millions in revenue. Encouraged by his success, Yadegari and his co-founder moved to San Francisco.

Even though he was financially successful and surrounded by mentors who told him college wasn’t needed, he started feeling something was missing. His perspective changed after visiting the Ryoan-ji rock garden in Kyoto, where he realized college wasn’t an obstacle but an opportunity.

"College, I realized, is more than just a rite of passage. It’s a chance to elevate the work I’ve always done. In this next chapter, I want to learn from people, both professors and students, not just from computers or textbooks," Yadegari wrote.

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