Who is Zach Yadegari, the 18 year-old millionaire rejected by Harvard, Princeton and other top universities

With a near-perfect grade point average of 4.0 and a successful startup, 18-year-old Zach Yadegari was rejected by a number of elite American universities, such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and other top American universities.

The AI company owned by the New York-based entrepreneur, Cal AI, earns $30 million in revenue every year. He posted his rejections on X, triggering widespread debate.

Yadegari's path to tech and entrepreneurshipYadegari's interest in technology started early. He began coding at seven and had created his first app by age 12.

At age 16, he successfully sold an online gaming business, setting him up for his most recent company, Cal AI. Started when he was in his junior year of high school, Cal AI employs artificial intelligence to scan pictures of food and monitor calorie consumption. The application took off fast, becoming the fastest-growing application in its niche and making millions in revenue.

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

College admission essay generates curiosity
Despite his impressive credentials, Yadegari’s rejection from top-tier institutions shocked many netizens. Some speculated that his college admissions essay played a key role in the decision.

In his essay, Yadegari first raised doubts about the need for college education, which might not have been well received by admissions committees. An X user chimed in, "if this is how you represented yourself to MIT, I can understand why it would want to reject you."

But Yadegari's perspective on college changed during a trip to Kyoto's Ryoan-ji rock garden. In his essay, he described how he rethought college, seeing it as a chance to learn instead of an impediment.

Yadegari got accepted into the Georgia Institute of Technology , which is one of the best engineering schools in the United States, after he was rejected by a number of Ivy League schools. He also got into the University of Miami, so he still has good academic opportunities awaiting him.