Northern California high school grad Stanley Zhong rejected by 16 colleges is hired by Google as a full time software engineer

One Northern California high school student was shocked to receive rejections from 16 of the 18 colleges he applied to and has since been offered a job at Google.

Stanley Zhong, 18, of Palo Alto had a 3.97 grade point average and a 4.42 weighted GPA along with a 1590 on the SATs going into college application time.

Despite his above average test scores and GPA, the teenager did not get into 88 percent of his desired colleges, including MIT, Stanford, and several state schools.

“Oh, well, some of them were probably expected. You know, Stanford, MIT, you know, it’s, it is what it is, right?…Some of the state schools I really thought, you know, I had a good shot and turned out to be a little bit of ‘ chance I had, I didn’t get in,’ he told ABC 7.

His two acceptances came from the University of Texas and University of Maryland.

Stanley Zhong, 18, was offered a job at Google as a software engineer after being rejected from 16 of the 18 colleges he applied to.

Two of the more prestigious schools Stanley rejected were Stanford (left) and MIT (right)

Zhong is a 2023 graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto.

Speaking to ABC, he said he was excited to apply to college after being busy in high school and starting an e-signing business in his sophomore year.

It was his test scores, GPA and dedication to his chosen field – software engineering – that he thought would give him an edge in the application process.

However, despite these factors, his overall application failed to impress most of the schools he applied to.

In total, Stanley was rejected by: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cornell University, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Caltech, University of Washington and University of Wisconsin.

Several schools from which the teenager was rejected have a lower average GPA and test scores than Stanley’s own statistics, including California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo which has a middle 50 percent GPA of 4.13-4.25 for admitted engineering students.

He admitted that he knew many of the colleges he applied to were hard to get into, he assumed he had a good shot at a good portion of them and was shocked when the rejections came. started pouring in.

Finally, the teenager decided to enroll at the University of Texas – one of the only two schools that accepted him immediately.

Shortly after accepting, however, Stanley received the shock of his life: a full-time job offer from software and technology giant Google.

He eventually decided to drop his enrollment at the Texas school and try his hand at Google’s campus rather than a college campus.

“Oh, well, some of them were probably expected. You know, Stanford, MIT, you know, it’s, it is what it is, right?…Some of the state schools I really thought, you know, I had a good shot and turned out to be a little bit of ‘ chance I had, I didn’t get in,’ Stanley told ABC 7

ACCEPT! Stanley enrolled at the University of Texas (left) and the University of Maryland Iright)

The University of California Los Angeles (left) and the University of California at Berkeley both rejected Stanley

While Stanley chooses to focus on his new job, his father told ABC 7 they decided to talk to local media to bring transparency to the college admissions process.

The story has since gone viral, sparking outrage from parents and average Americans who can’t understand how this could happen to an extraordinary candidate.

Thousands commented on social media posts sharing Stanley’s story, congratulating them on overcoming the rejections and lambasting the schools.

‘I feel this will be the occasion. There are in fact very bright young people out there. How will we stand out in the future? Time will tell!’

‘Dang! What does a child have to do to be accepted?! Well, it looks like he’ll have a bright future no matter what!’

“How did they reject him, glad Google picked him up, good luck to him.”

‘It’s crazy, when I was his age he chose any school he wanted. How times have changed.’

‘Good for him!! These colleges now a days charge an arm and a limb just to apply!!’

‘Eff these colleges!!! Nothing but money grabbing schemes!!! So happy for this young man. Congratulations to him and his family.’

‘Not every career field requires a college degree. If you have the brains, you get hired and paid. Congratulations to him.’

Stanley is pictured in his graduation cap and gown in a photo shared with ABC 7

In a follow up storyone college admissions expert told ABC 7 they see several reasons why Stanley may have been rejected despite his qualifications.

Allen Koh is CEO of Cardinal Education. Families pay its educational consultants to help students compete against other very well-qualified college applicants out there.

Koh is not surprised that colleges rejected Zhong’s application.

He said it was possible that Stanley’s intense commitment to computer science could have come across as ‘too one-sided for most universities’.

Additionally, he said that the sciences are one of the hardest fields to get into.

‘All the sciences are much harder to get into. In particular, engineering is much harder to get into than the other majors,’ Koh said.

;An Asian male, computer science, the probabilities are Darwinian – far worse than for any other demographic,’ Koh said.

According to Zippia, 18.8 percent of computer scientists are Asian while the majority – 64.2 percent – ​​are considered Caucasian.

Moreover, race could not have factored into many of the decisions for Zhong California has race-blind policies in place for college admissions.

Schools like UC Berkeley have spent millions cultivating diverse campuses despite the ban on affirmative action, which Golden State voters passed in 1996.

Some programs included schools targeting low-income students and admissions guarantees to more students.

However, those programs failed to significantly increase racial diversity, but did help increase geographic diversity and increase enrollment.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court barred colleges from using race as a factor when admitting students in a landmark ruling on affirmative action.

The justices ruled in a 6-3 vote that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s (UNC) race-based affirmative action admissions policy was unconstitutional.

They also ruled 6-2 that Harvard’s admissions policy should also be scrapped.

The ruling ended the decades-old “affirmative action” policy designed to boost the number of black and Hispanic students in colleges.

Now, universities will have to look at new ways to better incorporate minority groups and ensure representation among student bodies.

“Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable goals that justify the use of race, inevitably use race in a negative way, involve racial stereotyping, and have meaningful endpoints, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the Equal Protection guarantees does not become Clause,’ said the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.