Graham Blanks - who graduated HS in 2020 and will be attending Harvard starting next year - just ran a 13:27 at the Platinum PT Qualifier in Boston. Surprised no one has talked about him after he ran 13:35 a few weeks ago, he'll be dangerous in the NCAA in the coming years.
LRC note. We changed the way he was described. Blanks was described as a redshirt freshman when in reality he's taking a gap year and hasn't started at Harvard.
This guy was so far under the radar running at a tiny private high school in Georgia. Hard to imagine running these 5 k times before even getting to college. He’s the definition of a late bloomer and what a find for an Ivy League school. Will be interesting to see how he progresses. He and Nico could turn out to be the best in the class of 2020. 13:24 and 13:27 are some very strong times.
No such thing as a redshirt freshman in the the Ivy League.
He should go pro or transfer to a school that will give him a scholarship. Harvard is a great school but it is sad to see a 13:27 guy paying close to 80k per year for college.
He will be a redshirt frosh. He can transfer in his 5th year as a RS senior.
Yeah, please for the love of god DO NOT transfer out of Harvard. Probably the dumbest advice to give here LOL.
He is an incoming freshman. He has already made enormous improvements and may run a college freshman record the first year. He may still get Young's under 20 record this year, although Young without NCAA's to run might go after a sub 13:20. Was he being coached by the Harvard coach this year?
Why would you advise anyone to pay 300k for a Harvard degree when they can get a Stanford or Notre Dame degree for free?
Or stay at Harvard but go pro and get your education paid for and make a salary at the same time.
Because this is Letsrun where most of the people are dumb and poor but provide financial advice anyway. A free degree from nearly any school is better than spending $300K for a Harvard degree. A free degree from Stanford or ND is ridiculously better than a $300k degree from Harvard. Give me an engineering degree from any state school and $300K instead of an engineering degree from Harvard and no cash. I could buy a new condo in most cities and get a nice job and never have a house payment.
money back wrote:
He should go pro or transfer to a school that will give him a scholarship. Harvard is a great school but it is sad to see a 13:27 guy paying close to 80k per year for college.
“Harvard is a great school, but...”
Wtf is wrong with you people? This was his dream school. A degree from Harvard will pay off in dividends down the road, while you and I forward joke emails all day at work from our cubicle.
money back wrote:
Why would you advise anyone to pay 300k for a Harvard degree when they can get a Stanford or Notre Dame degree for free?
Or stay at Harvard but go pro and get your education paid for and make a salary at the same time.
Do you know something we don’t about his financial situation? Harvard has extremely generous need based financial aid. He could be paying $0 if his family doesn’t have much money. We just don’t know (or maybe you do?)
This point is true about Harvard’s financial aid being extremely generous (assuming financial need).
But honestly, what kind of a high horse must you be on to tell a kid who got into Harvard AND ran 13:27 that they essentially don’t know what they are doing and should transfer out.
Also, is he planning on doing engineering? Or why did someone feel the need to compare going to Stanford, Notre Dame (not in same league academically FYI) or even a state school for an engineering degree and cashing in on 300k to this young mans situation?
A sub point here is that you don’t get handed 300k all at once for signing up, so no buying a condo or whatever fairytale situation you described is not realistic.
Dad is account exec for large mortgage company and mom is in real estate. I estimate $300k per year and $5M net worth at this point in life. Spent $100k just to attend HS. Can obviously afford $300k at Harvard but probably would have made different decision had he known these times were coming and the scholarship that would have followed. I had 2 kids run 4:10 in HS and one had 36 ACT and the other 35. We explored Ivies both times but decided $300k was silly. Our salaries are not that high but we are extreme savers. I will admit that we now are very large opponents of the Ivies. Our kids had classmates attend Ivies on large discounts even though parents earn more than us but chose to spend money as they earned it. That is what the so called smart schools reward.
money back wrote:
He should go pro or transfer to a school that will give him a scholarship. Harvard is a great school but it is sad to see a 13:27 guy paying close to 80k per year for college.
You have no idea how much he is paying, the ivy league has needs-based..maybe he is paying 80, maybe he is paying nothing or somewhere in between..clearly a top-notch education is more important in his world than a top-notch running school and that's ok.
tshirtguy_ wrote:
Yeah, please for the love of god DO NOT transfer out of Harvard. Probably the dumbest advice to give here LOL.
Exactly, next they will be advising he transfers to NAU.
He is paying $80k per year. His parents have no problem paying it but he probably would have chosen Stanford had he received a scholarship.
money back wrote:
Why would you advise anyone to pay 300k for a Harvard degree when they can get a Stanford or Notre Dame degree for free?
Or stay at Harvard but go pro and get your education paid for and make a salary at the same time.
How do you know how much he is paying to attend Harvard and why do assume he could go to Stanford or ND for free?
hunt for it wrote:
Dad is account exec for large mortgage company and mom is in real estate. I estimate $300k per year and $5M net worth at this point in life. Spent $100k just to attend HS. Can obviously afford $300k at Harvard but probably would have made different decision had he known these times were coming and the scholarship that would have followed. I had 2 kids run 4:10 in HS and one had 36 ACT and the other 35. We explored Ivies both times but decided $300k was silly. Our salaries are not that high but we are extreme savers. I will admit that we now are very large opponents of the Ivies. Our kids had classmates attend Ivies on large discounts even though parents earn more than us but chose to spend money as they earned it. That is what the so called smart schools reward.
You don't know what they can afford, maybe the parents put all their savings up their noses....so you didn't send your kids to an ivy, where did you send them?
hunt for it wrote:
He is paying $80k per year. His parents have no problem paying it but he probably would have chosen Stanford had he received a scholarship.
Or maybe he and his parents had zero interest in going west of the Mississippi, maybe they have a relative that said go to an ivy and I will pay
Both went to P5 schools and neither are paying anything. Most is due to academic scholarships but both received small athletic scholarships as well.