Despite building a $30 million business before setting foot on a college campus, 18-year-old tech entrepreneur Zach Yadegari was rejected by all eight Ivy League schools and 15 of the 18 institutions he applied to.

Yadegari, who holds a perfect 4.0 GPA and a 34 ACT score, is the creator of Cal AI, an AI-powered calorie-counting app that has achieved massive financial success. Yet his college admissions journey proved unexpectedly challenging.

In addition to the Ivy League schools, Yadegari received rejection letters from top-tier universities including MIT, Stanford, Duke, USC, NYU, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, and Washington University.

“I think college admissions tries to place students in a very tight rubric that makes it difficult for people with accomplishments outside of traditional academics like entrepreneurs to stand out,” Yadegari told Fox News.

Despite his tech success, Yadegari said he was looking forward to the college experience for social reasons. “I’m 18. I want to hang out with other 18-year-olds. I don’t want to go straight into the business world just yet,” he said.

Ultimately, Yadegari was accepted by only three institutions: the University of Miami, Georgia Tech, and the University of Texas. The rejections especially hit hard after hearing from Stanford. “I held out hope for Stanford, but when I opened their rejection letter, all the previous ones just came rushing in,” he told The New York Post.

Yadegari, who began coding at age 7 and released his first app on Apple’s App Store at 12, said he didn't expect to be accepted everywhere but he had hoped that his entrepreneurial track record would carry more weight.

Still, he's keeping a positive outlook. Drawing inspiration from other successful entrepreneurs who didn’t rely on traditional education, he has now committed to the University of Miami.

“Update: I officially committed to UMiami,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, signaling the next chapter in a journey already marked by extraordinary achievement.