<p>if anyone knows firsthand, i'd apprecaite the info so as to settle a disagreement/discussion between rowers here.</p>
<p>specifically, as MIT is division 3 for all sports but crew, for which they are division 1, do their crew coaches get "slots" with MIT Admissions for their top recruits? Do they issue Likely Letters? Has anyone here ever gotten one or know of a rower who did? Do they push EA application for that?</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>No firsthand experience, but on the mit athletics site it says, “MIT is committed to identifying and supporting qualified academic candidates to compete in rowing.” </p>
<p>How much support? I don’t know.</p>
<p>yes they do. where are you at now?</p>
<p>Yes, they absolutely do. They do not have a version of a Likely Letter as far as I know (my daughter was being recruited by them, but after visiting/touring the school, she decided it would not be a good fit for her and ended the process before OV/LL time). From other rowers, I have heard that their “slots” are not necessarily a 100% sure thing - more of a strong push rather than a definite spot. However, they have being recruiting pretty actively in the past couple of years - really building up the team in more recent years. We were told by coaches that they did have influence with financial aid, but don’t know any more than that in regards to $. </p>
<p>EA is the preferred process by them as far as I can remember.</p>
<p>It was clear to us that they were very proud to have crew as a Div. 1 sport there.</p>
<p>thank you all :)</p>
<p>student1017-- r u a student at MIT or looking at the school? Per ur question, I am a soph high school rower.</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t have any sort of official support for athletes (no letters of intent, likely letters, etc). What they do have are “letters of recommendation” given to candidates they think are qualified for admittance. As I was told by the women’s lw rowing coach, they are a “very good push” for candidates, but not to the level of a LL or LoI. As someone mentioned before me, they prefer the EA method of application so if candidates for the team get differed, the coach can find out why or see if there’s anything else a recruit can do (specifically told to me by the coach). They also don’t give OVs, only Unofficial visits. </p>
<p>MIT was my first visit, and it was a nice way to start the process without being extremely intimidated by amazonian openweights and a hundred men parading around more than half naked…not that either of those are a bad thing haha. In the end though, MIT wasn’t a good fit for me.</p>
<p>Do you have to be really good at rowing to be recruited? How many people get recruited each year?</p>
<p>@MIT Obsession – Yes, rowing at MIT is a Division 1 which means they get to chose from some of the best athletes in the world who have been at the sport year round for years with very fast 2K erg scores and top placements/medals at USRowing qualifying regattas and at the National & even International levels. All other sports at MIT are D3, so i would think those recruiting standards are perhaps easier. </p>
<p>As to # of recruits, for reference, Harvard and Princeton coaches – whose athletic programs are much much more strongly supported than MITs, only get 3 to 5 Lwt rowing slots with Admissions per year. However, if you can get in to these schools on your own, you are welcome to try out for a walk on slot. </p>
<p>But if you aren’t rowing already (and reading your previous posts in other CC forums I do not believe you are a rower, but rather it is the school that is driving your interest , especially given your member name “MIT OBsession”), I assume you are thinking of rowing as a way to try to “get in” to the school. Please be aware that it takes time and talent and that there are many excelllent rowers who compete at the national level who would actually appreciate rowing for MIT for 4 years (vs just using all their rowing medals to get in).</p>
<p>Good luck, genuinely, with your “obsession” with MIT … but enjoy life and know there are many other excellent schools out there! Find a passion/“obsession” beyond a college/college name and enjoy that, excel at that … you’ll be happier and still well-served :)</p>
<p>Thanks for your help, but you come off a bit rude. Reading other posts doesn’t give you the right to assume that I only want to be recruited for rowing because I need a way to get into MIT. I WANT TO DO ROWING BECAUSE IT INTERESTS ME AS A SPORT NOT THE OPPORTUNITIES IT YIELDS. I was merely wondering how to get recruited because I actually would be interested in continuing rowing throughout college!</p>
<p>@MIT Obsession – my genuine apologies, i sincerely did not intend to offend. I did note that your other posts say you have never rowed and planned to start rowing next year. And i still pasued to employ the aforementioned assumption qualifier of “IF” </p>
<p>If you are wondering how to get recruited to row in college, this forum has many many posts about this already (they can even guide you quite specifically, such as whether you are a male or female and lightweight or openweight and what target recruiting 2K erg times are from college to college).</p>
<p>However, to addrtess your last point of " would be interested in continuing rowing throughout college " as I said, most colleges welcome walk on, have unrecrutied tryouts and/or have club teams … so you CAN continue rowing without being recruited!</p>
<p>My comment does still hold about keeping your options (and mind and heart) open to schools other than MIT as, for a freshman in high school , it is a little tunneled-scary that your member name is “MITObsession”. It’s a big , beautiful world out there :)</p>
<p>Thank you for your apology 
I smiled since I don’t get too many apologies haha. Anyways, I am glad to hear that I don’t have to be recruited to continue a hopefully well-formed passion for rowing! I agree that due to my username as well as other posts I may come off as a freshman willing to do anything to get into MIT. I also agree with it being a little scary that my username is what it is. I clearly was not thinking when I made my account, and I actually regret my username choice now… “Obsession” is quite a compulsive word and should not be thrown around lightly. Do you know of any way to change your username? </p>
<p>Also: do you have any preferred rowing threads that I can possibly look at?</p>
<p>This is redundant at this point, but I agree with all above posts! I was recruited to row at MIT, but they make it very clear that support from the coach is not a guaranteed acceptance. Also, the coach put a much bigger emphasis on grades and SAT scores than other coaches I talked to. We barely talked about 2k scores or race results at all actually. He probably wanted to make sure he had recruits that could actually get into the school, since he doesn’t carry THAT much weight in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your additional info!</p>
<p>MIT is getting stronger and stronger in a variety of sports–not just crew. Their swim teams have done amazingly well in the DIII NCAAs and an university doesn’t get to that level on the basis of dumb luck as to who walks onto the pool deck on the initial day of practice for the first time. The coaches have been doing what the other strong DIII coaches do-- looking for kids whose academic profile matches their schools’ profiles and identifying such kids to admissions. (if you want to see the opposite-- look at CalTech whose basketball team boasts more valedictorians than students who played high school varsity sports…) Good for MIT-- being smart and being a good jock are not mutually distinct attributes!</p>
<p>Just wanted to point out that designation as D1 vs D3 doesn’t necessarily mean that their rowing program has the highest athletic level of all their sports, or that it’s hardest/harder to get recruited for rowing compared to other sports at MIT. Nor does it mean that they have higher recruiting criteria, i.e. faster recruiting times, than, say, Williams.</p>
<p>Just wanted to (redundantly )confirm that MIT recruits. Acceptance, as others have said, is not at all guaranteed with a coach’s support. MIT Crew in the past few years got support for the admissions office to have athletes have official visits, and the number of recruited rowers has increased of late: squads which had none now have several. Walk-ons are still the bulk of each varsity squad (I think freshmen are mostly recruits? Anyone want to confirm? I’ve not counted.), and there are also quite a few rowers who rowed in high school but were not recruited.</p>