Posted on 04/10/2025 6:13:55 AM PDT by DFG
An 18-year-old with a near-perfect GPA founded a business that made $30 million in its first year — but that isn’t enough to woo college counselors these days.
At least that’s Zach Yadegari’s experience as he was rejected by 15 out of the 18 schools he applied to, despite a 4.0 GPA and score of 34 on the ACT.
The 18-year-old business founder shared his string of college rejections to X, where the post racked up more than 27 million views — with many shocked by elite higher ed’s apparent allergy to the entrepreneurial spirit.
“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 Post. “I think that entrepreneurial accomplishments may not be fully appreciated.”
The Rosslyn, New York, public schooler is already a self-made success before graduation. He learned to code at age 7, was giving lessons at age 10, and had an app in the App Store by age 12.
In his junior year, Yadegari founded Cal AI, an app that calculates how many calories are in a meal just by snapping a picture. It now makes tens of millions a year.
Nonetheless, the teen applied early to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was rejected.
During the regular decision round, he was turned down by Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Washington University in St. Louis, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, USC, the University of Virginia, NYU, Vanderbilt, Brown, and Cornell.
“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,” the Roslyn High School senior said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
They don’t want someone who can think independently on their own like this individual. They want those who they can turn into robots who just take orders and follow the group think agenda.
BTTT
My thought exactly.
“score of 34 on the ACT.”
there are many students who got a 35 or a 36
Grade inflation make what was a 4.0 in our time nothing today.
They give AP classes HIGHER than 4.0 values... so kids graduating today actually have above 4.0 GPA’s, which was impossible back in my day.
Grade Inflation’s a bitch....
Of course if he’s already making that much money, he’ll also have the authority to challenge the gobbledy gook that the humanitarian professors try to sell in the liberal arts courses he will be forced to take to get his degree.
Did he need to wave a rainbow flag?
Wrong color, wrong sexual preference, wrong sex. I was shocked that this kid wasn’t oriental. They’re the main target of this type of racism.
Anyone try Cal AI? Looks pretty interesting.
Many, if not most schools have stopped using SAT scores. Too objective. Objective evaluation is racist.
Change name to Mohammed Saleh
My guess is that he did not put enough effort into the essays many of the elite schools require. Or he did not pay homage to the right causes in those essays. Or maybe he wasn’t DEI enough.
“Many, if not most schools have stopped using SAT scores. Too objective. Objective evaluation is racist.”
Some have reversed it, like MIT, most others still accept SAT scores (I think). Someone like him SHOULD take the SAT regardless of what the schools demand...and, just maybe, he did take the SAT, but would rather not talk about it.
The headline doesn’t quite make sense - this isn’t 1950. Why would any of these colleges want to reward merit when their mission is to redistribute credentials to the less fortunate? This guy has already made it big and will get rich if he never sets foot on a college campus - it’s the poor and the marginalized we must think of! /s
Thank you. That’s the very first thing I suspected. Maybe he is dealing with a bunch of racists.
It’s a challenge if you’re white, if you’re male (unless you are seriously mentally ill and delusional and have made an appointment to have your weiner removed so that you can — and will — become a female), if you have anything other than hatred for Jews and, most importantly, if you cannot prove that your DNA does not or will not ever be detected on anything MAGA and that you have never — even in a drunken stupor — considered Trump to be anything but pure evil. (Oh, and you must show unqualified fealty to “preserving democracy”, as the Democrat/Communist Party has redefined “democracy” to mean.)
Too white.
Well put.
$30 million per year he doesn’t need college.
“And he probably wanted to meet young women. Otherwise, what’s he doing going backwards into college now?”
Unfortunately Society in general dictates that your calling card is backed by paper in frames hanging on the wall. You have to pay your dues to be part of the club or you are discredited.
It is a perplexing phenomenon I have not figured out yet. Another one is the subconscious perspective that someone is only allowed to have one skill set period. A butcher is not allowed to bake or make candles because he is not primarily a baker or candle stick maker... “Hey butcher? did you get a degree in how to bake or make candles? If not then you do not know how” Subconscious misconceptions driven by cultural and societal “norms”.
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