Tech giant Google has hired a high school graduate, Stanley Zhong, who was rejected by 16 colleges, including prestigious institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Melon, and Stanford. Zhong, an 18-year-old from Palo Alto, graduated from Gunn High School this year. Despite scoring an impressive 1590 out of 1600 in the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), he faced repeated rejection from his college applications.
“I expected some rejections, especially from Stanford and MIT. It is what it is. But I also thought I had a good chance at some state schools, and unfortunately, I didn’t get accepted,” Zhong shared with ABC7.
However, despite the setbacks, Zhong has secured a full-time software engineer position at Google. He started his new job this week, marking a significant turning point in his journey.
Zhong’s story came to public attention through his testimony at a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing. The focus of the hearing was to address the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision that banned affirmative action in college admissions, a decision that has left many students, like Zhong, perplexed by current university policies.
While Zhong had been accepted by the University of Texas and the University of Maryland, he chose to defer his enrollment at the University of Texas to pursue the job offer from Google.
Although he may still consider attending college in the future, for now, Zhong is embracing the opportunity to work at Google and experience life on its campus rather than a traditional college setting.