Rejected by Ivy League, Zachary Yadegari, Long Island teen founder of app worth millions, chooses U. of Miami

Zachary Yadegari, the Roslyn High School senior who founded an AI-powered app worth millions, has committed to attending the University of Miami in the fall.

The 18-year-old made the announcement on his X account on April 30 after previously sharing that he had been rejected by 15 of 18 schools in March.

Yadegari also shared on X that he has a 4.0 GPA and 34 ACT score (out of 36) but was accepted only to Georgia Tech, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Miami, and rejected from schools including Harvard, Cornell, MIT and Columbia. The Harvard rejection letter was published on the New York Post website.

"I expected to get into at least one or two top-tier schools, especially given my GPA, ACT score, and the success of Cal AI," Yadegari told Newsday in an email Thursday. "I thought my entrepreneurial experience would be seen as a strong asset, showing that I’m capable of more than just academic success. But I was surprised by how little weight was placed on that."

Yadegari cofounded Cal AI, a calorie-tracking app that uses AI to determine a food's calories and nutritional value using a smartphone camera. The teen previously told Newsday he started the app with his friend Henry Langmack, with the goal of building muscle for their workouts. The app, which has a projected annual revenue of $30 million, has been downloaded over 3.3 million times and several pricing plans, including an annual subscription of $99 a month, according to the app's Apple App Store page. The company is private.

"After getting rejected from the top-ranked schools academically, I reflected on my options," the young businessman told Newsday. He ultimately chose the University of Miami, he said Thursday.

Yadegari's mother, Debi Yadegari, shared with Newsday that her son's college application experience was eye-opening, considering her son's high GPA and test scores.

"I think this shows that we might want to rethink how we are assessing our future leaders," she said. "What has not been covered [in the press] in the past is he has several awards. He has coding awards, science fair awards, math fair awards, research wins," she said, "and this is a kid who has helped people through his app across time zones, across different cultures, different languages."

Yadegari said via email that he was president of his school's robotics club and won a research competition for creating a feedback system designed to help amputees.

College applications to competitive schools have surged in the past five years, but admissions numbers have mostly stayed the same, according to Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of educational services group The Princeton Review.

"Unfortunately, this is a story that many competitive students have," Franek. "They have incredible credentials, rigor of courses in high school, performance on standardized tests." Franek also said it's not unusual for students to apply to many schools "because the odds of getting into these schools are not as certain as they would have been just five years ago."

Yadegari said he plans to continue Cal AI and is considering studying philosophy. 

Roslyn High School declined to comment.

The University of Miami could not be reached for comment on Thursday.