Stanford runner transfers to Cal Poly, 1:46 800

how much longer until Lex & Leo transfer to NAU?

cal poly as debt avoidance for a phd does not compute. one, he may be full ride at stanford, given how fast his HS times were. second, ROI on the undergrad degree. let's say he's paying some part of stanford. you usually pay more of your debt in grad school. unless you get funded. most brilliant people are chasing funded programs. as in, they pay you to do grad school. ie another full ride.

as such you wouldn't go from stanford to cal poly to save a buck on undergrad, if doing so made it less likely for you to get into a funded psych phd program. you're thinking about it like some cheapskate. the people on here like, save a buck and go to juco, then a second rate cheap state school, that BA better be the only degree you need. because you will be paying for grad school with that resume. which is the expensive part. if you want the expensive part to be free, counter-intuitive, you impress now with your undergrad.

absolutely backwards.

i didn't realize his buddy is also his fast competition. to me this suggests some mix of joining your pal at his college -- at the expense of slumming here -- and the buddy convincing him he'll be faster at cal poly. that suggests the kid is either a particularly silly minded ivy plus student, or his goal is in fact to max out as a track pro. even at a weaker school. if you were maximizing school value you wouldn't do this.

the fallacy i see is A goes to X school and puts up a 1:46. his friend B goes to Y school and puts up a 1:46, maybe a tenth faster. B then starts woodshedding A come to Y with me. you'll be faster here. if they were similar in HS, and now similar in college, is that really a convincing case for school Y? maybe if he ran a 1:45 and won nationals. otherwise the fact they both improved to a similar level from a similar level should be a "push," and normally a stanford level brain would see that dropping an elite school for a weaker undergrad is a poor long term bet. track is a short term pro career. track casts its sunlight on a tiny amount of people. few make a lot of money. it's not football where getting drafted high enough sets you for life (if you save your money). you want your financially rewarding plan B.

What is Cal Poly? What a dumb move leaving Stanford his junior year.

This kid is an idiot. Stanford is one of the best schools in the entire world with a world Class distance program. He leaves to go to a Cal State. This isn’t just about running. He did this over a woman or being homesick. What a scum bag. Grow up

Which Cal Poly? There are three of them.

His "buddy" ran 1:59 in high school and has now run 1:46 at Cal Poly. Lester ran 1:47 in high school and has now run 1:46-high. It's not crazy for Lester to switch if he's all-in on running. Lots of Stanford athletes are, and most aren't elite "brains" either since there are significantly lower (not just a little) admissions requirements for recruited athletes.

Hi Ricardo!

Imagine thinking where you graduate is relevant. HAHA look at all Stanford distance grads and where they are now. NOWHERE

it sounds like he is only transferring for the outdoor season. Unfortunate, because they would otherwise have a potential podium DMR team with him, McCarthy (3:56.0) and Smith (3:59.4).

Cal Poly and other LA schools cheat and use strategic US Govt funds for athletics. NCAA schools have cried foul for 100 years and LA keeps cheating.

A minor point, but Stanford is on a quarter system. Three quarters in a typical academic year. Doesn't invalidate your point, assuming you're figuring 2 semesters per year.

Spend a moment with a map before posting. Cal Poly is a long way from LA.

Kind of hard to cheat with government grant money unless you stick it into some merit scholarships, or now into an nil pool. The real problem with your claim though is at least for past 20 years or so, the UCal and CalSt schools have actually been pretty terrible in sports, so their investment in cheating has not been working out so well.

Cal Poly is now apparently getting some alumni support from Miller and Carlotti, hence Van Hoy and probably now fully funded for distance. It's also a beautiful area to run.

This is not that difficult.

Reasons for transferring are all related to running …

1. Olympic year

2. Superior coach

3. Back with teammate

mic dropped!

Agree, I question how much chance Lester has of making oly team, but he'll why not.

While you are right about why he left, the discussion here has really been about if that is a long term bright move.

We'll have to come back in 10 yrs to see how his running and career work out.

As poor college student? Or a 50yo Tesla driving venture capitalist?

I can’t believe it took this long for someone to mention this… I’m sure Stanford going to the acc had something to do with this… even if the travel isn’t much worse for a track athlete just the idea that the college made such a stupid move at the expense of their athletes could have rubbed him the wrong way.

It is surprising to see a good student leave Stanford in the middle of their junior year.

And while I do think people are still impressed by the name on a degree, it struck me that maybe he can still put the name on his CV. Something like this.

Undergrad
Stanford University 2022-2024 3.9 GPA
Cal Poly 2024-2025 NCAA All-American 4.0 GPA.