Good luck to all of you future collegiate rowers! We are now into July so let the recruiting games begin. Remember to keep in mind your sport is just that, a sport and your choice to college should reflect your primary goal…which is to be well placed academically. Rowing is just the icing on the cake. Be confident but not cocky, keep your determination with school work and always put your best, and most polite foot forward with coaches and you should be just fine 
seems quite on this tread for 2nd week in July- anyone ???
My daughter has been corresponding with a handful of coaches for the past several months. She has two official visits for the fall but is interested in finding out, from the remaining schools, where she stands in terms of recruiting, her chances, etc. How should she go about asking those questions?
My suggestion is that if your daughter has already been in touch with the coaches for some time, then given where we are in the cycle, she should raise the issue fairly directly, and soon - coaches are starting to schedule specific athletes for specific weekends, and they do have limits each week. But I would also suggest keeping that very limited to her highest-priority choices who haven’t yet invited her.
This is around the time when coaches start to revise and prioritize their recruiting lists, and as a result they may slow down in responding to athletes who are not at the top of their list. They do this for the same reason that athletes slow down in responding to certain coaches: You want to see where you stand with your top choices before deciding what kind of signals to send to others.
So when she reaches out to the coaches, she should be prepared to respond honestly to the “where do we stand with you?” question from coaches. If she can honestly say “X is really my top choice/one of my top two choices”, she should make sure the coach knows that.
One final point. One of the very helpful posters to this thread noted that the teams actually like to coordinate scheduling, because it saves them $$, and they know that lots of kids are visiting several schools. If your daughter is flying out to her OVs, she might consider sharing with the coach of X Ivy that she’s coming on an OV to Y Ivy in, e.g., the last week of September, and so she would like to schedule a visit to X during that same week, if possible. Again, that is just a suggestion, offered with the further caveat that you don’t want to be pushy, and that patience is a big part of this game - there are lots of posts here involving kids who got commitments later in the process, as the coach went down her list of prospects and found that a few of them were committing to other programs.
Has anyone tried any good 2k erg training plans that were successful for them? Planning out my training this next year and so I’m just wondering about thoughts on the Wolverine Plan, Pete’s Plan, etc… Thanks!
Thanks so much for your reply
Can’t speak from direct experience, but the consensus from all of the discussions that I’ve seen is that the best plans all involve lots of steady state work. Check out discussions on Reddit for more details. Good luck!
look up a guy named Xeno Muller- he is legit and gets kids to improve their times significantly
Xeno is for most definitely for real; he is an Olympic champion and several of his kids have done very well at Crash-Bs and in the recruiting game. He’s also not cheap. However if you look carefully at his website you’ll see he offers a range of courses, mixing videos and various levels of personal assistance/feedback, at various price points.
Son is rising senior, looking to row lwt in college.
Perfect GPA, 2300 Sat, gold medals at recent and relavent regattas. 6:40 erg (kinda slow), but after recent win, has started to accumulate interest. Has scheduled 3 officials and will probably get a 4th. Wondering 1) chances of officials leading to offers, 2) how much pressure to commit
Different sport but similar timeline. What constitutes pushy? Versus being proactive, checking in on status on prereads and status as a recruit? A handful of prereads out with no word. If DS reaches out to ask about them, and is told admissions hasn’t gotten to it yet (over a period of a month or more) how should he respond at this juncture without being pushy?
I need help in assessing what I should do here. I contacted Dartmouth’s coach a month ago with my stats, which are a pretty low (7:44) but I have solid academics. We emailed back and forth and she said that she would like to call me to learn more about me. However, when I replied about dates and times, she never replied back. I know that coaches are understandably busy, so I followed up every few weeks. I have already sent her five follow-up emails, but she has not responded to any of them. Should I take this as a sign that the coach does not want to recruit me anymore? I’m just confused as to why she expressed interest and then ignored me. Dartmouth is my absolute dream school and I plan on applying ED.
OV’s cost money, so coaches don’t offer them unless they are fairly serious. Also, OVs are offered first to the very top recruits. The number of invitees vary from college to college, and from program to program, but the odds of them leading to offers are generally pretty good - assuming, of course, that the visit goes well.
Once the offer is made, there will be pressure to accept quickly - coaches have only so many spaces to offer, and if one recruit doesn’t want the offer, they need to offer it to the next person on their list, before that next person commits to some other program. This is why it’s important to schedule the OVs as early as possible, and close to each other, so that you don’t have to say “sorry, I need a week or two to get back to you.”
As for @rowergirl10 's interaction with Dartmouth, the bad news is that if you have good academics and decent numbers, the coaches usually don’t come out and tell you “sorry, not interested” - they just stop responding. So yes, five emails with no follow up is a pretty clear signal - with a couple of important qualifications:
- The process isn't over until it's over. You are probably somewhere on their list, and they are first working out where they stand with higher-ranked recruits. They may well come back to you later in the fall - or the winter - for any number of reasons, such as if one of their recruits gets in ED, but then decides not to accept the spot. There are even situations where a rower is put on the RD waitlist, and the coach gets involved in nudging Admissions to offer them a place. So just as they haven't told you "don't bother", keep sending them updates on both your rowing and your academics, to let them know you're still interested.
- Make sure they know why you're interested in Dartmouth. You write that you first contacted them a month ago; the coach she has been in touch with other recruits for months, and has probably already met with them and has a sense of their interest in the school. If you haven't done so already, make sure to explain to them why you are interested in Dartmouth. Coaches prefer kids who want to be at their school, and Admissions definitely wants to see that in the applicants that the coaches recommend.
- Consider visiting on your own dime, and offer to meet with the coach in person. Of course you want an OV, so you can meet the team and really see what it is like. But that's not the only way to meet the coach and see the team in action. Even if you've already visited campus before, write to the coach and say that you'd like to drive up there and meet in person to discuss your rowing and your interest in the team (make sure to be very flexible about timing).
Of course, if the coach doesn’t have time for a call, they may not respond to a message about meeting in person. But some coaches in particular are running around with camps and other activities in the summer, and can find it hard to schedule a call - or they end up missing the scheduled time for the call. I’ve seen this happen, and it wasn’t because the coach wasn’t interested in the recruit. By contrast, if you offer to come by the boathouse when the team is practicing, they can see you’re serious about Dartmouth, and it’s easy for them to take a couple of minutes to say hello, and ask you about your rowing.
- Finally, while of course people want to be recruited, bear in mind that walk-ons are an important part of most Ivy rowing programs, including Dartmouth's. Last year they had a very large number of freshmen women join the team. So even if you aren't formally recruited, if you do get in, the coach will welcome you with open arms at the boathouse.
Good luck!
6’2" 185-190 pounds male here. Have a 2k of 6:24.7 and a GPA of 3.91 in AP classes and have an ACT of 32. What are my chances of getting recruited?
@aznprodigy what year are you?
Starting to get antsy- so far only 1 official Visit but a lot of positive emails and calls with coaches - was anticipating more OV’s at this point… incredible test of patience—
@aznprodigy if you’re a junior, then from what you’ve shared, the general answer is yes, you have a “good chance”, if you keep progressing over this year. Guys with your stats usually end up getting recruited somewhere. Can’t be more specific without more specifics - and much depends on your on-water results, and whether the college coach thinks you’re serious about staying with the program.
@“Rowers Dad” coaches are narrowing, and prioritizing, their lists, so if they are responding quickly to messages and taking the time to talk, then your son is somewhere meaningful on their list. Those lists include not just the half-dozen or so rising seniors who just made the Junior National team (and several who almost made it); they will also include several top rowers from Britain (many of their top junior rowers came over last year, and are coming over this fall), some guys who just rowed in the European Championships, and a few from Down Under as well.
Coaches also have to factor in the academics of the candidates. It becomes a very specific process, prospect by prospect, as they work down their lists. Hang in there!
@rowergirl10 I’m HYP class’19, was recruited by Dartmouth two years ago. They had a shakeup with their coaching staff and haven’t been the most organized. 7:44 is slow for ivys but keep reaching out if dartmouth is really your #1.Also ask about recruited walk-on positions. It sounds like you’re a strong student, and coaches can submit a letter of rec, separate from officially recruiting you that may be the push you need to get in.
I am a senior. I row for a scholastic team and we consistently finish in the finals at Stotesbury.
@aznprodigy if you’re regularly in the finals at Stotes, that’s good. Small boat results say more about you that big boats, but A finals appearances in any boat class show that you’ve experienced the competitive pressure.
6:24.7 is a solid 2k but in just the last few years more and more rowers have posted faster and faster times, so coaches’ expectations have grown. One (non-HYP) head coach told us proudly that his incoming class’ average time was under 6:20. If you can get it under 6:20 this fall, that could really help. If not, dropping a couple of seconds will still be good.
Your GPA is fine, and a 32 ACT can suffice for a strong recruit. Coaches will be much happier if your ACT was a point higher, however, and you would need to get it two or three points higher to be someone whose academic index is above the team’s average. It is important for you to plan to re-take standardized tests in any event - admissions offices want to see that you are still pushing to improve - and a higher score could make the difference if you are in the RD application pool, and the coach is trying to give you a push, even though he has used all of his LL slots.
Do you have any OVs lined up? Has your coach called the college coaches? This can be helpful for candidates who are in the mix with several others.