I am a freshman looking ahead at recruitment possibilities, I know it’s a bit early but I love the sport and am looking at top schools. As of now, I am 5’8 and sit comfortably at 136 lbs, my 2k is 7:59 (though I plan to get this much lower, as I have lots of time,)in addition to this I have a 3.9 gpa. I was wondering if anyone has any insight into what it takes to get recruited to top schools, ecspecially because I am on the smaller side of a heavyweight but would have to lose a couple of pounds to be a lightweight.
My daughter is a senior in HS, her PR 2k is 7:39. She is similar in size to you. She is a 4.0 student, National Merit Semifinalist, ACT 35. She had interest from a number of D1 schools but none that would be considered top rowing programs. She had official visit offers to 6 colleges, ultimately signed to row next year at the college she feels is a good fit both academically and rowing wise. If you are 14-15 years you may still grow a bit. Our impression is that top open weight programs are not really interested unless you are at least 5’10” with a 2k below 7:30. My daughter could have rowed at top lightweight programs, but we discouraged her from that after hearing how hard it is to maintain weight less than 130. She weighed about 128lbs going into senior year, but with the weight training they do in college we knew it wasn’t healthy for her to row lightweight. If you can get your 2k close to or below 7:30 you will get lots of interest from programs.
Thanks so much! It’s great to get some insight on these things
Maintaining LTWT status is extremely difficult. If you struggle to maintain weight I’d suggest you aim for open weight.
Do you think you are done growing in height?
Where is your natural weight? Are you are bit on the heavy side right now after eating over the holidays?
If you are only a freshman and already 5’8" and 136 lbs, then I suspect you are not a lightweight.
Although girls finish growing in height before boys do, there are exceptions. You might still gain an inch or so, making your odds of being a lightweight even less realistic.
If you are already at 7:59 as a freshman, then I suspect you will easily get your time down to a competitive number by your junior year when you start contacting coaches.
With a 3.9 GPA and a seriously competitive 2k erg time, you can likely be recruited at Ivy League schools. If you need a full scholarship, then Ivy League does not have it though. They can provide money based on financial need only. You have to decide which way works for you and your family. If your parents make too much money, then rowing will merely get you some coach assistance for admissions.
Based on what you wrote in your first post, I think you can be recruited if you stick with it.
Once again, thank you for responding
I have not grown height-wise for more than a year, which could mean I’m done growing(sadly). The heaviest I’ve ever been is 140 lbs, and As of now I normally weight 137-138 after a full day of eating. Though I hope to gain more muscle weight, I think I would still be pretty small as a heavyweight, but I’ll see how things play out.
Thanks again for the input
There are fewer and fewer D1 scholarships available – the reason to be recruited is the admissions advantage, but if you can maintain a 3.9 GPA you don’t need rowing to help you with admissions. Keep rowing open weight (it’s not called heavy weight for a reason – you’re not heavy!) and crew will offer you all sorts of benefits and leadership opportunities that will appeal to colleges, even if they don’t have rowing. There are lots of D3 schools that will be interested in your combination of athletic ability AND academic success.
My daughter is a Junior lightweight at a DC public high school. Her 2K time is 7:30 and she’s a competitive distance runner. Did your daughter visit or seriously consider any schools besides UWisconsin, BU, Harvard, and Princeton? There are not that many D1 schools with lightweight programs but that’s what my daughter wants to concentrate on. She’s not worried about the rigorous training schedule.
You may have good potential at some schools that offer strong lightweight womens programs like Villanova or MIT IF you also have the scores / grades. But, with lightweight women’s rowing pretty much being done away with at Olympic level, not many colleges invest money anymore in lightweight rowing, and many don’t even have teams for it. It’s sad but true that the physically gifted ladies have the advantage with rowing recruitment.
What the prestige rowing schools want is height, height, height, and the erg score to match. Also, don’t forget international (out of US) rowing recruiting has exploded in the past 20 yrs so you’ll be competing with Junior / Senior National team members from other countries as well. Just being on a HS rowing team in a boat likely won’t land an Ivy recruitment all alone. You must be top at rowing, grades and test scores. But at 5’8 and a 7:40 2k at 15 I think your doing pretty well. Can you really maintain weight as a lightweight at 5’8 though? That will be tough especially if you are still growing. Most college lightweights I knew were around 5’6 and those that were much taller had a horrible time sucking down. To compete as a Heavy at a top school you’ll need closer to a 7 min 2k, especially at your height.
You do not mention what type of school that you are interested in rowing at, but I would encourage you to be open to different types of schools and focus on trying to find a school that you would like to attend even if you could not row. My D19 is similar to you in height and weight at age 15 and 2K times at age 15. I would discourage you from only looking at schools with lightweight programs for a couple of reasons. As mentioned above, there are not many lightweight programs and those that do exist don’t offer scholarships because they are not NCAA sanctioned. We have found that at 5’8" with great grades and 2K time in the 7:30s our D19 did get interest from plenty of open weight programs. It is hard to maintain that weight restriction at 5’8", and our daughter had to decide if she was willing to be thinking about the scale for her 4 years of college vs focusing on being as strong as possible. She is now about 140lbs and feels much less stressed not worrying about her weight and focusing on gaining muscle and eating healthy.
Also, as you look at schools you may consider schools that have rowing club teams. Examples that my daughter explored include Purdue, Nebraska and Iowa State. They can offer the benefits of continuing your rowing experience in college without the pressures of being on a D1-D3 team, and some club teams are very competitive and travel to some big regattas.
I can say from our experience that with a 2K time of 7:30-7:40 and great grades with experience and at 5’8" you may not get interest from “top” heavyweight schools but you would definitely be able to find a school that would be happy to have you on their team, and maybe even a partial scholarship to boot. You also shouldn’t discount D3 programs from schools that offer good merit money. My D19 ended up at state school ranked top 25 in rowing with a partial rowing scholarship and great merit scholarship. She had multiple offers for official visits from other D1 colleges.
If you are from the east coast she may or may not like Wisconsin. We are from the midwest and looked at Wisconsin lightweight program too. Even for my midwest girl Madison was not “urban” enough in feel for her. It is a great school and they have an awesome boathouse and water situation. I would encourage her to visit Wisconsin in both the winter and summer if possible to see if she would be happy there if rowing was for some reason not in the picture. I say this not to discourage, as I am from Wisconsin, but Madison and DC are pretty different.
Hello, I am a 15 year old rower and am looking at recruitment possibilities (I know it’s early but I am just very passionate about the sport.) I am 5’8 and a lightweight with a 7:55/ 1:58.9 2k PR and plan to get this number down, as I still have a few years to do so. As of now, I have medaled once at a regatta and have competed at regionals. I maintain a 3.9 GPA. I have my hopes set on competing competitively in college; I am aware that the few major lightweight collegiate programs are at schools like the ivies, BU and a few others. I would love to have some insight on what options may be open to be considering my stats. Please share if you have any information! 
My daughter committed to Harvard lightweight after her Official visit in September. She had officials @ Wisconsin, BU, Harvard & Princeton. I’m sure u saw Princeton win gold and Harvard silver @ HOCR this past weekend. U probably need a 2K of 7:30. Also if your high school team is not great (my daughter’s is not), join a summer club team that’s in top 10. Also fill out interest forms on college athletic websites
My daughter went on an official to Wisconsin this summer. I was shocked at how many rowers they invited - 30-40. Harvard invited 10 for 3 lightweight spots; Princeton 10-15 for 4 spots. UWisconsin offered my daughter no money. They said they use it for the open weights
Thanks for your response, it’s very helpful. I am currently still planning on competing as a lightweight. I recently got my 2k down to 7:50 and my coach is expecting me to go into the 7:30s and 20s’ by the end of this winter. I am now a sophomore and still have a 3.9 UW and am waiting to get my PSAT scores back. I was wondering what kind of test scores merit attention from top programs, such as the ones your daughter was looking at?