I am the Founder and CEO of a 1.5 Million $ Startup. Chances to get into Stanford, Cornell and GT?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi guys,

I’d like to share my story with you.
Please tell me my chances of getting accepted into Stanford, Cornell, Georgia Tech, George Washington, NYU & Virginia Tech.

I founded a company when I was 16 yo - an artificial intelligence software company.
I have raised my second round of seed funding, participated and won international startup competitions in Switzerland, Dubai, Shanghai, and Italy…my company is now worth 1.5M$, with 7 employees, 3 board of advisors from world known exited startups and we’re about to launch our service to public.

When I was 13, I taught myself how to code - I programmed applications and websites for clients - companies and individuals (in freelance).
I then merged my skills with a touch of entrepreneurship that I have inherited from my father’s leadership along my teenage hood, and eventually founded my software startup at 16.

I am also part of the National Swimming Team - I travel internationally for competitions and win championships nationally.
I was the captain of the Junior Varsity and Varsity Swimming team for four years.
I was part of the Track and Field, Table Tennis and Judo’s school varsity team.

I am part of the Senior Performing Arts and the Senior Choir singers (I’m a tenor).
I played the piano for eight consecutive years, and I now perform covers (unpublished ones).

I have 150+ hours of community service.

I founded an entrepreneurship club in my school along with three other colleagues.

I reside in Beirut, I am part of the Scientific track of the French Baccalaureate program with a speciality in math.

I have a cumulative average of 15.8/20 - which makes it up to an A+ using the american grading system (around 4.3/5)
I am fluent in three languages and have been studying all three of them for over 10 years.

I have a recommendation letter from the school’s senior vice president (writes recommendation letters very rarely to students who added value to the school - and this turned out to be me).

I also have two recommendation letters from a Math and Physics teacher.

I have a score of 1750/2400 on the SAT:
720/800 in Math
470/800 in Critical Reading (Do they take into consideration that I pursue a french program?)
560/800 in Writing

Along my journey, I have collaborated with car companies to integrate my software into their cars, including Nissan and Infiniti.
I have made amazing connections from all around the world, gained tremendous experience and learned a lot which led me to choose Computer Engineering for some colleges and Economics and Management for others.

I have written very well my essays and talked about all my EC in my essays (did not mention the valuation of my company and amounts raised by VCs).

I would like to know what are my chances in your opinion.

Thanks,

Best Regards

2

Have you taken the TOEFL? Judging in part by a critical reading score below 500 and a writing score under 1600, I’d be concerned about your ability to handle extremely demanding coursework in English.

3

Why would you want to? Why not keep doing what you’re doing?

4

SouthFloridaMom9, you stole my question! I’d think there would be a huge disconnect between the students at these schools and the OP.Cornell? Really? What would you study? Hospitality?

5

Unless of course, these were really OP’s dad’s accomplishment made in son’s name. Then college may make more sense. Many kids learn to code by 12. It is the miraculous achievements that make the OP unlikely to fit well into college. But if the actual achievements were really dad’s with OP’s name stuck on, well then that is a different story entirely.

6

I get wanting to further studies in history, liberal arts, languages, etc. On the other hand OP has more of a STEM-driven list.

If I were OP I would not want to leave the technology sector where I was successful, without a very good reason. I could study areas of interest on the side.

7

Sounds fake. I would reject your application if it were up to me, based on low test scores and lack of honesty. Because if it were all true, you wouldn’t be bothering with a college degree.

8

Same here SouthFloridaMom9, would not make much sense. Especially if he/she is CEO of a company. I know many students at places like those listed who come in with amazing achievements. And academics still take a substantial amount of time for them and is often a big struggle. So the idea that academics could be a side line is misguided. So what happens to the company if OP’s attention were diverted to other things? And he/she is on CC for “chances”? Seems off.

9

How about a link to the website of this “company?”

10

Minor detail, but 4.3 on a 5.0 scale is not an A+ average. It would be on a 4.0 scale. Not really sure how to translate due to possible differences in grading, but to me it looks more like a 3.1 – which numerically at least it is a B average on a 4.0 scale. Can’t tell too much by that without class rank, though.

I also wonder what you expect to gain, what will happen to your company without you, and how you will keep up in a top college classroom with those CR scores. The problem with “taking into account” that you are in a French program is that your classes would all be in English, very fast paced, with students with much better reading skills. Colleges might be intrigued by some of your accomplishments, but they have to believe that you would benefit from what they offer and could keep up,

11

Hey guys, thanks for your comments.

Regarding the “fake” concerns - I have started from the bottom, encountered many obstacles, failed, failed again, and failed more - this is not my “dad’s” company, or “dad’s” assets. I have reached this level by failing, learning and of course, by learning from my dad’s leadership and entrepreneurship - his lessons, his advice and his opinions (along with the board of advisors).

Why should I go to college?
This is a debate I’m having myself honestly: should I take gap years, continue working on my startup, gain more experience, or go to college?
The answer is, I believe going to college will allow me expand my knowledge, get more exposure, gain more experience and more advice from professors and advisors that lecture computer science or economics courses.
Colleges are really into this domain nowadays - like Georgia Tech’s Venture Lab program for startups, Stanford’s initiative and courses regarding “How to start a startup”…
Plus, having a college degree adds value to the next company I’m going to start - so if I did this without a college degree, I could achieve much more WITH a college degree.
I agree that academics are not directly related to what I’m doing, but unfortunately, nowadays, you can’t really do much without a college degree.

12

Have you taken the TOEFL? Because you didn’t respond to comments about your GPA and test scores,which appear to be low, or whether you have taken the TOEFL.

13

A 1.5m is not enough to eschew college guys. Even if it is dad’s $ as seed capital. Net book value could be a dollar for all we know.

All you can do is try. Your SAT needs to come up tho (CR especially).

14

intparent, I will be taking the IELTS test in two weeks, and have not taken the TOEFL.
Regarding my GPA, I have tried to look up online for some resources to translate an /20 grade to a 4.0 or 5.0 GPA.
I got that everything over 14/20 is an A in the USA.
I have no knowledge in /4 or /5 GPAs - I assumed that a 4.3/5 is an A+

15

You can’t simply do a numerical conversion of grades because the system lack “homogeneous of variance”.

16

Neither Bill Gates nor Mark Zuckerberg have degrees.

I agree with the previous posters: it doesn’t appear that fitting into college, will help much unless you plan to major in business.

Your current SAT scores are very low, and, don’t match your “GPA” which will impact your acceptances to those high caliber schools.

17

For all of you wondering why I’m on College Confidential:
I am a normal teenager, living a life of a business man - my parents want me to go to college; I live in the Middle East where mentality is really traditional.

Aunt Bea, I get this a lot, but this response is very cliché - Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg and let’s say ten more world known business men, represent 12 individuals out of billions of people in this world.
The probability of succeeding “the Bill Gates way” is less than winning the 1.5 Billion dollars jackpot tomorrow.

18

How did you decide on Stanford, Cornell or GT? Seems odd collection. What would you major in?

19

Stanford is in the heart of Palo Alto - the startup hub of the world
(Computer science as a first choice and economics as a second choice)

Cornell will soon open a tech campus in NYC focused on startups and entrepreneurship
(Dyson school of applied economics and management)

Georgia Tech has a program called Venture Lab where it incubates startups, gives them advice, and funds them
(Computer engineering as a first choice and electrical engineering as a second choice)

20

Assuming this is all true, you still have almost no chance. Stanford had 0.2% of students admitted score in the 400-500 range on the CR portion of the SAT. Cornell had 0.3% and GT had 1.0%