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Google hires US teen rejected by 16 colleges, including MIT, Stanford
Stanley Zhong, 18, began his full-time job as a software engineer, this week.
Google has hired a teenager, 18, who was rejected by 16 out of 18 colleges he applied to after graduating from high school. Stanley Zhong, from Palo Alto, United States, was denied admission by colleges including MIT, Stanford, and others, despite a Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) score of 1590 out of 1600.
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Zhong, a 2023 graduate from the Gunn High School in his hometown, also founded his own e-signing startup, RabbitSign, during his high school days.
“Oh, well, some of them (rejection letters) were certainly 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 chance and turns out a bit of a chance I had, I didn't get in,” he told ABC7.
A wave of rejections later, however, arrived the job offer from Google; the tech giant offered him a full-time job as a software engineer. The teenager started with the Mountain View, California-headquartered company, this week.
To take up the job, Stanley had to put aside his admission to University of Texas, one of only two colleges where his application got accepted, the other being University of Maryland.
His story became so viral that it was brought up by a witness testifying at the House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing, held on September 28. The hearing's goal was to consider how the US Supreme Court's June decision to ban affirmative actions in college admissions, was shaping policies at universities.
