A highschool teen behind an AI app producing $30 million in annual income simply acquired rejected by 15 prime faculties, together with Ivy League colleges like Harvard, Columbia, and Princeton. Tens of hundreds of commentators on X are positive that it was his private assertion that acquired in the way in which.
Zach Yadegari, the 18-year-old co-founder of the photograph calorie app Cal AI, shared his expertise with faculty admissions final week in a publish on X. Yadegari disclosed that he had a 4.0 GPA and a 34 ACT rating. ACT scores are reported out of a most of 36; Yadegari’s rating locations him among the many prime 5% of check takers.
He additionally had his app, Cal AI, as a venture that he shared with faculties. Cal AI permits customers to take an image of the meals on their plate and have the app mechanically log the meal’s energy and macronutrients. Yadegari launched Cal AI in Could, and within the eight months since its launch, the app has garnered over 5 million downloads and greater than $2 million in month-to-month income, he advised TechCrunch.
Cal AI has a 4.8-star score on the Apple App Retailer and Google Play Retailer, with at the least 80,000 critiques on every retailer.
Associated: A Teen With Cerebral Palsy Pitched a Inventive Product in College. He Received a B- — Then Grew the Enterprise to $5 Million a Yr Anyway.
Regardless of Yadegari’s achievements, he was rejected from 15 of the 18 colleges he utilized to, with solely Georgia Tech, the College of Texas, and the College of Miami extending him acceptances. Yadegari posted screenshots of his private assertion, which described how he went from coding on the age of seven to constructing Cal AI and interviewing his first worker to work on the app.
The essay overarchingly tracked how Yadegari went from vowing to by no means attend faculty to desirous to attend college to attach with different college students.
“School, I got here to appreciate, is greater than a mere proper of passage,” he wrote. “It’s the conduit to raise the work I’ve all the time performed.”
A consumer on X commented that Yadegari’s private assertion signaled to admissions officers he would probably drop out.
“Private assertion signifies that you are a excessive chance to drop out,” they wrote. “So that they gave your spot to somebody that really desires to graduate faculty.”
Over 20,000 different X customers favored the remark.
private assertion signifies that you are a excessive chance to drop out
so that they gave your spot to somebody that really desires to graduate faculty
— WPA ?? (@warpaul) April 1, 2025
School purposes to prime colleges have been on the rise. The New York Occasions stories that the Ivy-Plus colleges, or the eight Ivy League faculties plus MIT, Duke, the College of Chicago, and Stanford, obtained greater than triple the variety of purposes in 2022 than they did twenty years prior.
As of January, purposes to high schools rose 7% in comparison with final yr on the identical time. Greater than 1.2 million highschool college students utilized to varsity this yr, submitting 6.7 million purposes to high schools, in line with Widespread App information.
Common SAT scores have additionally barely inched up over the previous three a long time. In 1994, the typical rating was 1,003, whereas in 2024, the typical rating was 1,024, per PrepScholar.
Associated: Teen Brothers Began a Facet Hustle on Fb Market That is on Observe for $1.2 Million This Yr: ‘Stop My Job and Went All In’
Yadegari advised TechCrunch that on the finish of the day, he is not positive why he was rejected from so many faculties. He is nonetheless determining what he plans to do.
“Finally, I am going to by no means know precisely why I used to be turned down,” he advised the publication.
One other X consumer requested why Yadegari needed to go to varsity when he had already had skilled experiences.
“My motivation [for] going to varsity is simply to have a social life,” Yadegari replied.
This text is a part of our ongoing Younger Entrepreneur® collection highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of being a younger enterprise proprietor.
