This is a kid I really wanted us to get as he has huge upside and keeps getting better. Hard to turn down a Harvard education. Most players of his talent would never make the move. Have to respect the kid for putting ego aside to not play in power conference. But with his talent he can make the NBA out of Harvard if that’s his goal. If not he has a Harvard degree to fall back on.
Ledlum to Harvard
- Thread starter 4upmc
- Start date
It sounds like education is the most important thing for him, which is great. You can't turn that down.
The connections and prestige will prove far more advantageous than any greater knowledge gained vs attending any at least decent college or university.
Would be interesting to know what financial aid, if any, he will get from Harvard.
That being said, I recently heard a personal finance guru on the radio claim that Harvard's endowment is so massive that they could give every student who is admitted a totally free ride and the Harvard endowment would never become depleted. In fact, the guru said that Harvard should do exactly that--give every kid admitted a free ride because Harvard can afford it and, in the guru's opinion, it would be "the right thing to do."
Great point. Just to let everyone know, Pitt has an endowment of almost 4 billion. Harvard is over 37 billion.
Before 2008 Harvard eliminated tuition for students with family incomes under something like $50,000 a year. I believe they were going to eliminate it for everyone but then the great recession hit. But yeah they could probably still pretty easily eliminate tuition for all undergraduates and pay it from the endowment interest.
I think Stanford waives tuition for under $100K, surprised Harvard's is that low
It's apparently now free (including room and board) if your family income is under $65,000. I assume they're heading towards no tuition or to Stanford levels.
I doubt that many families with incomes under $65K have kids who can gain Harvard admission based solely on academic performance and SAT scores--likely a very low percentage of each freshman class. Probably most admissions from that economic group are gaining admission based on some sort of athletic team desirability. In the affluent area I used to live in--the strategy for getting your smart (but not Ivy level smart) kid into an Ivy was to have them on an olympic-type HS sports team like crew, lacrosse, volleyball, etc. Crew was a particularly desirable way to go where I formerly lived.
Most Ivy League schools, including Harvard and Yale, have "need-blind" admissions. Anyone who is admitted only pays the expected family contribution as determined by the CSS Profile, which is more comprehensive than the FAFSA. In that regard, they are often less expensive than other private and even many public institutions. They also have enough applicants at 4.0 and 2400 to fill their classes, but they use many other criteria when offering admission.
Good luck to the kid. The Ivy isn't bereft of talent. We should schedule a couple for OOC....Penn, e.g.
And we squabble over a few hundred million in sports programs! That's chump change compared to the endowments at Pitt and many other schools, and especially Harvard's.
I don't know that I agree that "most players of his talent would never make the move." I think it's happening more and more, especially with Harvard and Yale dancing so consistently in recent years and dancing deep into the tourney. Exhibit A is Seth Towns, who was a first-team All-Ohioan a few years ago and turned down offers from Ohio State, Michigan, UCLA, Florida, Butler and others to play for Amaker and Harvard. Towns played for the same high school as Jared Sullinger and Trey Burke and was expected to go a similar route (Sullinger to OSU, Burke to Michigan). Until he didn't.
Towns was the Ivy Player of the Year last year as just a sophomore and is a big reason Harvard is expected to dance in March. He's only a junior but is an expected NBA pick when he finishes in Cambridge in two years. I'm sure Ledlum is aware of Towns' path and that attending Harvard isn't a limiter as far as the NBA goes. If you're good enough, they'll find you.
Still disappointing we didn't land Ledlum, but at least another ACC squad didn't get him.
