Ivy League Reject Begs Elon Musk for Advice After Revealing 'Social Life' Was Only Motivation to Go to College

Zach Yadegari is an 18-year-old entrepreneur with a business pulling in $30 million a year, a 34 ACT score, and a 4.0 GPA, who was shocked to be rejected by every Ivy League school he applied to.

After receiving rejections from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT and more, Yadegari took to social media to air his grievances—and even attempted to get a response from Elon Musk.

In the personal statement Yadegari posted to X, he emphasized his early rejection of college—"I rejected convention and took to self-learning," and his immense entrepreneurial success—describing college as "the conduit to elevate the work I have always done."

Thousands responded to his essay, with many referencing a tone of entitlement, or pointing out that schools likely saw him as a high dropout risk, and would likely prioritize students committed to earning a degree.

Yadegari defended himself in several comments, unswayed by criticism. "Even if there's a 1% chance I continue my rate of success, wouldn't they want to take the risk of being able to use my name in the future?" he argued.

One commenter asked why he still wanted to go to college. "My motivation of going to college is just to have a social life," Yadegari admitted.

The response didn't do much to help his case, reinforcing the perception that elite schools passed him over in favor of students with more academic or research-driven aspirations. Others sarcastically noted that if his only motivation for college was making friends, he could probably just take a gap year and go to parties instead.

Unaccustomed to failure, Yadegari has posted another statement, accusing admissions systems of prioritizing "diversity over merit, adversity over excellence, and circumstances over capability." Demanding that favor be shown to the "best and brightest," Yadegari ends with a call to "Make Admissions Fair Again."

So far, Musk has not responded to Yadegari's tweet.