He created a $30 million app, started a website with 5 million users, yet was turned down by every one of the eight Ivy League institutions.
Currently, 18-year-old Zach Yadegari from Roslyn, who resides in Long Island, is shifting his skills to South Florida.
Even with a flawless 4.0 GPA, an impressive 34 ACT score, and experience as the founder of a highly successful calorie-tracking application, Yadegari mentions he was rejected from 15 out of the 18 universities he applied to—this included all Ivies, along with Stanford, MIT, Duke, and NYU.
“I wasn’t expecting to get into all of these colleges,” he said.
told
The New York Post
in April. “However, I did expect to at least be accepted to a couple of the top schools I was applying to.”
Rather than sticking with his current plan, Yadegari will now join the ranks of the Hurricanes. He announced this decision by pledging his allegiance to the University of Miami via a social media post seen by over 45,000 people following him.
on X
Wednesday, April 30: “Update: I officially committed to UMiami.”
Although the Ivy League rejected them, the world has already given its approval.
Yadegari’s application, Cal AI, is an artificial intelligence-driven calorie-counting tool that enables users to record their meals just by taking a picture. Since its release in 2024, the app has accumulated over 6 million downloads and produces upwards of $30 million in yearly income.
Prior to that, he established Totally Science, a STEM education portal that attracted 5 million users before he sold it for seven-figure earnings when he was just 16 years old.
By the age of 10, Yadegari had started teaching computer programming for $30 an hour, and by 14, he was making $60,000 annually from his online gaming platform.
Nevertheless, the university rejection letters continued to arrive. When the letter from Stanford came through, he confessed, “all the previous denials suddenly overwhelmed me and truly struck hard all at once.”
Yadegari has been vocal about his belief that the college admissions system doesn’t reward real-world achievement. In an open letter
posted to X
in April, he wrote:
“The college admissions system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as designed. Admissions offices prioritize diversity over merit, adversity over excellence, and circumstances over capability… We must favor the ‘best and brightest.’ We must recognize and reward excellence.”
Yet beneath the show of toughness lies a teen who merely craves a experience of something he has been denied: ordinary life.
“I’m 18,” Yadegari
told Fox News
I’d like to spend time with my peers who are 18 years old. For now, I’m not ready to dive into the professional realm.
In a deeply personal college essay
shared on social media
, Yadegari reflected on his path and the pressure of becoming the archetypal dropout founder.
“In my rejection of the collegiate path, I had unwittingly bound myself to another framework of expectations… College, I came to realize, is more than a mere rite of passage. It is the conduit to elevate the work I have always done.”
He added: “I began my journey fiercely independent, determined to forge my own path. Now, I see that individuality and connection are not opposites, but complements… Now, nearly five years later, I am ready to send a new text: ‘I’m going to college.’”
Yadegari is set to graduate from Roslyn High School in June.
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