• Zach Yadegari, 18-year-old founder of Cal AI with $30 million in annual revenue, was rejected from all Ivy League universities.
  • Despite his business success and 4.0 GPA, elite schools, including Stanford and MIT, denied him admission.
  • He was accepted to Georgia Tech and the University of Miami, stating he seeks the "best four years of my life" from college.

Zach Yadegari, the 18-year-old founder and CEO of nutrition tracking app Cal AI, has been rejected by numerous elite American universities despite his company generating $30 million in annual recurring revenue and his perfect 4.0 GPA.

The New York-based teen entrepreneur took to social media platform X to reveal his college application results, showing rejections from all eight Ivy League schools — Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania — as well as other prestigious institutions including Stanford, MIT, New York University, Duke, and the University of Southern California.

Yadegari's rejections sparked surprise across social media, with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian commenting, "That's nuts."

His company, Cal AI, which uses artificial intelligence to track calories from food images, has been recognized by Forbes as an app "that's challenging legacy industry giants."

The teen millionaire did secure acceptances from Georgia Institute of Technology, considered one of America's top engineering schools, and the University of Miami.

In his college admission essay, which he shared publicly, Yadegari described his journey from believing higher education was unnecessary to seeking a college experience.

He revealed he began coding at age 7, launched his first app at 12, and had already exited a successful online gaming business by 16 before founding Cal AI during his junior year of high school.

Despite being surrounded by mentors and investors who reinforced the idea that college wasn't necessary for his success, Yadegari wrote that a visit to a Japanese rock garden sparked deeper reflection, leading him to see college as "the conduit to elevate the work I have always done."

Responding to comments on X, the young CEO clarified his motivation: "I'm not seeking skills. I'm seeking the 'best four years of my life.'"

Edited by Annette George