DEI In Action? Elite Colleges Reject 18 Year Old Honor Student Who Invented $30 Million App
n 18 year old high school student with a 4.0 grade point average, who invented a $30 million AI calorie-counting app, says he was rejected by 15 out of 18 elite colleges including Ivy League schools like Harvard, MIT and Princeton.
Zach Yadegari is the founder and CEO of the Cal AI app which tracks a person’s calories just by taking a picture of the food they are eating.
The app has been downloaded more than 5 million times and brings in nearly $30 million annually.
Despite having become a millionaire, Yadegari says he wants to attend college to build upon what he’s already been able to accomplish.
With a 4.0 grade point average and a 35 ACT score, Yadegari applied to a number of prestigious colleges, including Ivy League schools.
However, many of those elite schools, have rejected him.
Yadegari described the disappointment of being passed over by so many of the other institutions, telling Fox News, “I think that college admissions tries to place students in this rubric, a very tight box, that makes it difficult for students that have achievements outside of school, like an entrepreneur, to really stand out.”
When asked why he would want to attend college, in the first place, Yadegari spoke of the intense work he’s put in as a entrepreneur.
“I’ve sacrificed a lot of social events in order to achieve what I really have,” he continued, “I’m 18, I want to hang out with other 18 year olds. I don’t want to go straight into the business world just yet.”
Commenting on the reasons why admissions appear to be skewed against entrepreneurial students, Yadegari told TMZ, “I think they are definitely looking for someone moldable, who they can shape how they want. But I was thinking that if I was running a college myself, from a business-oriented perspective, I would want someone who is potentially a future donor… but I think more importantly, is just saying that all these successful people went to your school.”
Yadegari didn't make the grade. Let's take Harvard for example. The average GPA at Harvard is 4.2, while Brown is 4.18 and Yale is 4.13. How can a GPA be over 4.0? Because many students take AP (advanced placement) courses in high school, and an A in an AP class gives you 5.0 points towards your GPA.
If he took AP courses, he didn't score at the top of the class. If he didn't take AP courses, admissions officers may wonder why he didn't challenge himself.
And it gets worse. Presumably Yadegari wanted to major in CS. That's a STEM field and graduation requirements include a fair amount of calculus plus a course in linear algebra. You take those courses in college, but you have to build the foundation for them in high school. If, for example, Yadegari was taking easy A's instead of physics and pre-calc, that's a big red flag to the admissions dept. at an elite school.
It would also be interesting to read his essay. He might have come across as entitled and arrogant.
Update: here is his essay; sounds insincere. The expectation he states "elevate the work I have always done" may not make him a good fit for the mission of many of the schools he's applying to. https://x.com/zach_yadegari/status/1906888487292559531
@ElwoodBlues google it. Yes, it basically reads “i hated the idea if college until I got rich, but you better accept me now because being rich has changed me.
“I think they are definitely looking for someone moldable, who they can shape how they want. But I was thinking that if I was running a college myself, from a business-oriented perspective, I would want someone who is potentially a future donor… but I think more importantly, is just saying that all these successful people went to your school.”
Possibly they rejected him because he comes across an opinionated show off who thinks he knows how to run a university better than the teachers . .
According to that list he got into three colleges, if he wanted to further his education, he'd go to one of them instead of whining on Fox News. Nothing is stopping him, he's stopping himself.
