4.0 GPA Teen's Viral Cal AI App Fails to Secure Spot in 15 Top Universities

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Zach Yadegari, the teenage co-founder of Cal AI, recently shared on X that he was rejected by 15 out of the 18 top colleges he applied to. Despite boasting a perfect 4.0 GPA and a stellar 34 on his ACT, Yadegari believes his college essay was the culprit behind these rejections, a sentiment echoed by thousands of commenters on the platform. As reported by TechCrunch, Yadegari's venture, Cal AI, an AI-powered calorie-tracking app, has reportedly been downloaded over a million times and is on track to generate $30 million in annual recurring revenue. Before Cal AI, Yadegari sold a web gaming company for $100,000. Initially, Yadegari had no plans to attend college, envisioning himself as a tech entrepreneur who would skip higher education. However, after spending a summer at a hacker house in San Francisco, he realized that college could offer him a valuable part of his young adult life. This realization led him to apply to colleges, a decision he detailed in his essay. Yadegari shared his entire essay on X, where he explained his initial reluctance to attend college and his journey as a self-taught coder making significant money. He described how venture capitalists and mentors had convinced him that college was unnecessary, until he had a change of heart. He wrote, "In my rejection of the collegiate path, I had unwittingly bound myself to another framework of expectations: the archetypal dropout founder. Instead of schoolteachers, it was VCs and mentors steering me toward a direction that was still not my own." He concluded that college would help him "elevate the work I have always done" and expressed a desire to learn from people, not just books and YouTube. Despite his impressive academic and entrepreneurial achievements, Yadegari was rejected by prestigious institutions like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Duke, and Cornell. He was accepted by Georgia Tech, the University of Texas, and the University of Miami. His post about the rejections went viral, garnering over 22 million views, 2,700 retweets, and 3,600 comments. Many criticized his essay as "arrogant," while others attacked the college admissions system. Some insightful comments suggested that colleges seek candidates eager for education and likely to graduate, noting that Yadegari's essay seemed to show he was barely convinced to attend college. Garry Tan from Y Combinator also chimed in on X, sharing his own experience of being widely rejected and waitlisted due to his essay, which was influenced by Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead." Yadegari told TechCrunch that he's still deciding his next steps but found the varied responses to his post intriguing. He admitted, "It was interesting to see many different perspectives, but ultimately, I’ll never know exactly why I was turned down. At the end of the day, when I wrote my essay, I hoped admissions offices would perceive me as authentic because that’s all I ever want to be." Reflecting on his experiences, Yadegari realized that business success isn't the ultimate achievement at 17. He said, "I realized that life was not just about financial success, it is about relationships, and about being a part of a larger community."

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