Re: Dartmouth… our daughter walked on as a coxswain and became good friends with a number of other walk-ons. It’s definitely possible, @rowergirl10. My son went to a camp there in July. Afterwards, the coach wrote to say that his erg score wasn’t low enough to be recruited, but if he can get in on his own merit, “we’d love to have you on the team.” If that’s your dream school, go for it – and best of luck!!
My daughter wants to row in college. She competed in Youth Nationals and Club Nationals this summer in a 2x and 1x. She’s submitted recruiting questionnaires to several colleges, but she’s not getting responses. She’s is technically a lightweight rower (5’4" and 119lbs), but she rows in both open weight and lightweight events. Does anyone have advice on schools to look into or how to reach out to coaches? She’s emailed, but hasn’t made any phone calls. Do colleges take walk-on rowers? Any advice or suggestions are appreciated! Time is ticking away…
Is she a rising senior or junior? Either way, coaches from Stanford to Texas to Yale are all over at the world championships in Rotterdam, which just wrapped up.
Is your daughter a senior? What is her PR? What schools has she contacted?
If she is a rising junior, then she may not hear back right now, coaches are scrambling to fill this year’s class.
At 5’4" 119 pounds, she is a better fit for lwt and d3 teams, maybe some middle to lower level d1. If she’s reaching out to top 20 NCAA teams, unless she has an great PR for her size (7:20’s or lower) then she’s not going to get interest from top tier NCAA d1 teams. Unfortunately, 5’4" is just too small to catch their attention.
Still, tons of other schools would be interested. And all schools welcome walk ons.
She’s a senior. She didn’t start reaching out to coaches, until July 1, because we thought that she couldn’t discuss until then. Her team doesn’t have an indoor practice facility so they spend very little time on ergs at the gym. Her best is 8:04. What’s a great time for a lightweight?
She has a 4.0/4.48 GPA with a rigorous schedule and a 1430/1600 SAT (retaking this fall). I’d rather not say who she’s reached out to in a public forum.
She should email the coaches at the school’s she is interested in, giving them her stats, letting them know what she is working on improving and asking them what she can do to be competitive for their program. Many programs have walk-ins but she won’t benefit from coach’s support in the admissions process. It’s not too late but she needs to be pretty assertive about putting herself out there. The worst that can happen is a coach will say he/she has their recruiting list full already but you never know unless you do it!
Good luck!
great academics.
The top lwt recruits at top LWT teams will have 2ks in the 7:20’s. 7:30’s will get their attention. 7:40’s and you’re in the ballpark.
This from an earlier post of mine:
- Lightweight times have dropped pretty dramatically in the last couple years. There are a handful of high school Lwts pulling in the 7:30’s and many more pulling in the 7:40’s in their junior year. The best are in the 7:20’s senior year. That said, if you can pull sub 7:50, you are in the ballpark.
Some guidelines from experience at our club that sends many rowers to these schools:
Stanford: Minimum academic standards: all A’s (1 or 2 Bs may fly) 32 or 2150, many challenging courses, and 7:35 or better by the end of your junior year. They will have 4-6 spots (at least a couple will be locked up in the summer).
Harvard: Top academics. Same academic standards as Stanford. Harvard gets more international student interest. Harvard also seems to attract rowers with small boat experience. (1X, 2X)
Princeton: same as Harvard.
For MIT: Perfect Academics. A’s in advanced everything and top test scores. A slower erg score will be OK. Probably sub 8 to get a look and sub 7:50 to get them excited.
For Georgetown: strong academics, but not like Ivies, Stanford, or MIT. Sub 7:45 and good race results at big regattas will get their attention.
For BU: Average+ to good academics. Sub 8 will get a look. Sub 7:50 will garner interest. Sub 7:45, you’ll be a hot recruit. Good race results at major regattas also gets their attention. Go to Crash B’s if possible. The BU coach will be allowed to speak to you because it is held on BU’s campus.
Wisco: similar to BU but lots of spots available. Huge team and lots of walk ons.
Bucknell: good academics, sub 8 should get you a look.
Tulsa: average+ to good academics. Sub 8 gets a look. Sub 7:50 and you will be a top recruit and they have scholarships for Lwts.
Lots of good schools who are D3 and might be interested.
Thanks @Lovesrowing
Bucknell isn’t fielding a dedicated lwt team anymore. They did not compete at IRAs last year. Fordham, Umass, Villanova all have lwt boats too.
Every lwt team mentioned above (Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Georgetown, BU, wisco, Tulsa…) would welcome your daughter as a walk on if she gets into the school on her own.
What’s everyone’s sense on how many kids from each of the top 15 schools have gone on OV’s- for instance, How many kids have gone on a OV at a school like Brown for example? just curios of where each school stands with OV’s
She heard back from her number one choice today! They said that she is a strong candidate to be a walk on and that her academics sound like a good match for the university. They strongly suggested that she apply to the school. Fingers crossed!
@MomofThree95
That’s great news! Congrats
Literally just returned from “mega worlds” in Rotterdam today - 1st time that Juniors, U23 and Seniors have had a combined World Championships - with almost 2,000 rowers participating in a full week of heats, semis and finals. I can confirm that if you haven’t heard from a coach this week, that is why - everyone from Oklahoma to Washington to Michigan to Notre Dame to Texas to Harvard to Brown to Princeton was there recruiting… I am going to guess that this week will be filled with follow ups from Worlds along with addressing communications with those junior rowers that weren’t there.
At this point, in my experience, most OVs have been made. In answer to how many OVs are given by a college, it would depend on how deep their program is. Brown or Princeton, for example won’t have a lot of non-priority rowers on their roster, whereas a school like UVA, Texas, Michigan, etc. will likely have more OVs to give as their teams are much deeper. Every rower on an Ivy roster (tend to be smaller, more compact teams) will likely race throughout the season, whereas on a deeper team, some rowers may never make a boat.
@MomofThree95 Is your interpretation that she will be getting help from the coach for admissions? We had the same letter and it didn’t seem very promising/certain?
@Rownmom The letter was definitely not a form letter. It was personalized to my daughter. They said that she was a good candidate for the University without admissions help. It’s still a long shot to get accepted, but it was nice to hear from the coach directly and feel like her emails were actually being read.
When my son received his notification from Princeton (lightweight), he was told that they only give out around 15 official visits. I’m guessing that HYP will have a higher “yield” than the others, and give out fewer official visits.
I am wondering if anyone who has experience with both HYP and top D1 official visits can speak to if and how differently they are handled, especially regarding parents… I am familiar with D1 visits for both the athlete and the parents, but would like to hear from other parents who have attended HYP visits. For example, do they pay for lodging and plan a parent’s schedule?
Sorry but I have never heard of any rowing program, at least here in the East, that pays for parents to visit or plans their schedule as part of an OV. Maybe that’s because several Ivies have “Junior Days” or “open houses” at various times during the year. Those are very much geared for the parents and the students, but that’s during your junior year and you have to pay your own way to the school.
Prior to 1 Aug 16, the NCAA did not allow schools to pay for parents’ travel or lodging, so HYP or anywhere else would have been on the parent’s nickle if they decided to attend (making the big assumption that this is women’s rowing, which unlike men’s rowing, is an NCAA sport). I would think that for rowing at least there would no real incentive to pay for the parents’ travel (it might be a competitive advantage for major programs to bring parents along for e.g. top football or basketball recruits), but since the NCAA now allows it you could always have your child ask. Like @wykehamist, I am not familiar with HYP planning an itinerary for parents on a rower’s OV.