<p>I have 2 questions regarding Varsity Athletics at MIT:</p>
<p>(1) I recently was deferred, but my swim coach reminded me to fill out recruitment forms as I plan to swim in college (at least at the club level). My best time for the 200 Free is 2:00.04, 100 Breast 1:11.98, 100 Fly 1:05.49 (that a little further back), 50 Breast in relay 31.86 and 50 free in relay 24.74. I looked at some times from MIT meet results and, for example, a junior had a 1:56 200 Free time. Would I qualify for the varsity team if I was accepted to MIT?</p>
<p>(2) Do varsity athletics interfere with academics? If I were to go to MIT, I would want to be involved in the UROP program as well. Would I be able to succeed academically while participating in both a varsity sport and research? Currently, between school, homework, swimming, and robotics I have an 80 hour week (that doesn't include the weekend, where I usually have a morning swim practice, a saturday at robotics, or homework all day), so I am used to a busy schedule.</p>
<p>Many varsity sports teams at MIT are pretty laid back, if you want to participate you probably can, and I think a lot of teams take people without any prior experience (I'm on the pistol team, and most new members had never held a gun before). I don't know specifically about the swimming team, but I would assume you could easily get on the varsity team, especially considering you have past experience. Again though, procedures may vary from team to team, but you should certainly feel free to email a current member of team, I'm sure they'd be happy to telly you anything you need to know.</p>
<p>Coaches at MIT know what MIT is like (at least mine does), so they understand that you have more academic pressure than students at any other university in the country. You're paying $50,000 a semester for an education, not to swim, and they understand that as well. So if have a particularly stressful week or something, in my experience coaches are very understanding about missing practice. But MIT students also have a tendency to try and bite off more than they can chew, and you have to be careful not to do that. Spend your first "pass/no record" semester figuring out how you're going to balance sports, academics, and down time so that you can get the most out of your MIT experience. Some people with great time management might not have a problem doing a UROP, sport, and 6 classes, but other people might function better with either a UROP or a sport and 4 classes. It's definitely a personal thing. So my best advice would be to take your pass/no record semester (your transcript only carries a "P" if you pass a course and it's like you never took it if you failed) and see how well you handle your courses and swimming, and take it from there.</p>
<p>It is definitely possible. I can't answer your question about making the varsity swim team, but I am on the crew team, and I still have time for everything. I'm starting a UROP next semester after having some extra time this semester, and I'm excited. It is definitely important to have good time management though, and be on top of your problem sets and homework. It's no fun to pull an all nighter and then go to practice. </p>
<p>And for swimming, I don't think it's quite as intense. For crew we practice 6 days a week year round, but I know swimming has pre season, but I don't think it's everyday, but I could be wrong.</p>
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Do varsity athletics interfere with academics? If I were to go to MIT, I would want to be involved in the UROP program as well. Would I be able to succeed academically while participating in both a varsity sport and research?
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I think the answer to both is yes. I mean, yes, you can absolutely do a varsity sport and a UROP and keep up with schoolwork, but it's not an easy row to hoe, and you have to be (or get) really good at time management. Some of my friends who were varsity athletes did everything and were fine, but others found they needed to do research only out of their seasons. It works out differently for everybody.</p>
<p>Well the MIT Swimming & Diving Recruitment page, aside from being poorly put together (they give spaces to put times down, but fail to give a specific space to say the event that you got the time in), isn't working (it says "Unable to perform action"). I reported the error to the MIT webpage. Should I contact the head coach directly to apply for recruitment or wait a little longer to see if the online recruiting page will function?</p>
<p>^^ There's nothing unethical about choosing to go elsewhere. Since an MIT coach recommended you, it would be kind and gracious to send a personal thank you with a brief explanation. The coach may be disappointed, but he or she will understand. </p>
<p>Of course, you should definitely have some further conversations with the financial aid office before deciding that your family can't afford MIT</p>