Gen Z programmer rejected by Ivy League despite founding $30M app says college ‘isn’t worth it for most people’

After all, why would he need that? Cal AI, the calorie-tracking app he co-founded, blossomed into a $30 million empire before he could even place orders, so it’s safe to say he’s been doing just fine.

“After Cal AI took off, he confirmed it. I thought to myself, ‘Well, obviously you don’t need college to be successful.'” “My parents finally saw the vision,” Yadirgari said previously. luck.

The programming prodigy is a long-time entrepreneur, having taught himself programming when he was just 7 years old. By the age of 10, he was charging $30 an hour for lessons for people who wanted to learn the skill. By the time he reached high school, he had created a gaming website called Totally Science, which enabled his peers to play unblocked video games online without the need to download or register. The project brought in its first six figures.

Yadeguri eventually changed his mind about college and decided to apply. But despite having an extensive background in entrepreneurship, a 4.0 GPA, and a 34 on the ACTs, he was rejected from Ivy League universities, including Stanford, which Yadegari said was “known for startups.”

18 years old
34 law
4.0 GPA
30 million US dollars

Stanford ❌
With ❌
Harvard❌
Yale ❌
I wash you ❌
Colombia ❌
Younine ❌
Princeton ❌
Duke ❌
University of Southern California ❌
Georgia Tech ✅
Ultraviolet rays ❌
New York University ❌
Utah ✅
Vanderbilt ❌
Brown ❌
Umiami ✅
Cornell ❌ — Zach Yadegari (@zach_yadegari) April 1, 2025

The only colleges that accepted him were Georgia Tech, the University of Miami and the University of Texas, Yadegari said. He decided to attend the University of Miami, not for the prestige, but for the atmosphere.

“If I wasn’t going to improve to get to the best school academically, I was going to improve to get to the best school socially,” Yadegari said.

“Two weeks after I started school, I had a great time,” he said. luck In late August.

This may be because he views college as a “six-figure vacation.” He parties and lives in a house with other like-minded app-building friends who are between 18 and 26 years old. According to Yadegari, they are successful entrepreneurs like him.

Yadegari is currently undeclared in his major. He dropped out of business school and is now taking philosophy classes. He’s still taking one class in entrepreneurship, but says he’s “not taking a lot of material” because he already has experience.

Although he enjoys his new partying and paychecking endeavors, he believes his Gen Z peers don’t need college to succeed.

“It’s not worth it for most people, for sure, even for me,” he said. “I mean, I’m having a lot of fun, and I think it’s worth it for me, and the minute it’s not worth it, I’ll stop.”

“But I feel like I have my whole life to make money, but like the little $100,000 it’s going to cost me now, it’s going to be worth making memories…rather than just saving it, spending it, investing it, whatever the case may be,” he added.

Start Cal AI

At the age of sixteen, Yadegari began creating apps that he considered “mini-projects.” One of them isn’t so young anymore, either Your horse It launched into a $30 million empire. The app allows users to track calories by taking photos of their food. (luck Financial records have been reviewed that show the app generates millions of dollars in revenue per month.)

Yadegari said his work was inspired by his personal quest to bulk up when he was a teenager (younger).

“I had been very skinny my whole life, and I wanted to start growing and gaining weight,” Yadegari said. luck. When he realized that the majority of his progress was coming from diet, he began tracking his calories more and eating in excess.

But there was something missing from his fitness journey: an easy-to-use calorie-tracking app. He found that the most popular app at the time was a “horrible experience.” The lack of reliable tracking meant he couldn’t eat in the cafeteria with his friends: he ate pre-portioned meals that were weighed on a scale, and often skipped eating out at restaurants due to unclear calorie counts.

After brainstorming a smartphone solution, he presented his vision to partners he knew he could trust, including a friend from coding camp and two people he met at X.comlike I mentioned before CNBC. together, Henry LangemachBlake Anderson and Jake Castillo launched Cal AI in May 2024.

According to Yadegari, the app contains 90% accuracy rate To track calories. It’s free to download on both apple App Store and Google Play with subscriptions at $2.49 per month or $29.99 per year.

Yadegari’s financial success has been featured in outlets including CNBC, CBS and TechCrunch —He didn’t need the Ivy League to get there.

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