Hi- I am currently a junior in HS at a somewhat well-known HS club team. Many girls from my team in the past have gone on to row/get recruited to row in college.
I have really tried to push myself to break 8 minute on my 2k last spring but it was not happening ( I also had a shoulder injury and there was a lot of team drama going on bc the coach was not pushing some girls to get better like he was with others).
I am 5’11 and I row lightweight ( I am naturally like around 135 but I have lost 5 pounds for regattas with no problems) and my best erg score (so far) is n 8:10. For my 6k it is a 26:12. I know my time are not that competitive and need to improve but I have heard that many coaches really look for tall girls and I wanted to know if this would help me at all. What kind of schools do you think would recruit me ? I have talked to other girls who are older than me and went to the College Exo at IDR and the coaches were constantly pulling them aside and talking to them because they saw ho tall they were and their 2ks are not amazing. My SAT is a 1450 ( I am prepping to try and get a 1520 now) and my GPA currently is around a 3.65-3.7 and I take all honors/AP classes. I have lots of supporting extracurricular and my dad is also an alumni at Columbia if that helps.
I really want to get my GPA up to a 3.8 this year because I want to have a chance at a top 40/top 50 school-not sur ifs want liberal arts or university yet.
But my main question is how important of a factor is height and how will it help me.
Your height doesn’t matter because your erg time is not competitive.you also sound like you are just making excuses. You may have a shot at Columbia as a legacy I suppose. Though legacy status is no longer what it used to be. The biggest concern for coaches/schools is students quitting rhe sport. Your goal is to get into a better school, not to be a competitive rower. That’s fine but that’s your agenda nit the programs. You clearly haven’t worked to achieve a recruitable erg so you are a huge risk even as a prospect. Height is a great plus, power is better.