I have a daughter who is a junior and starting to visit colleges. Right now she is only interested in D1 schools. She’s a competitive runner and her 2K time rowing is 7.30. She qualifies for lightweight crew. Right now she is only interested in 4 schools and has had phone calls and unofficial visits to all 4. Should I nudge her to consider more schools? 2 of the 4 (BU and Wisconsin) I think would definitely accept her.
It really depends on how it is going with the coaches of those schools. Four may be plenty of schools if the coaches have her high on their lists.
My daughter is in a very similar situation. (Same sport, but she is a coxswain) She has a clear top choice and the coaches seem very interested but I keep telling her there are no guarantees. So this April we are visiting a few schools that she would get into on her own academically. I feel like she needs a really good plan B.
No guarantees, I would encourage her to keep exploring other schools, and would not rule out looking at open weight rowing programs. My D19 was a borderline lightweight-open weight rower as a junior. Once she started looking at open weight programs she had many more options and found that several programs were still interested in a “small” open weight who could pull a 2K in the 7:30s. She ended up committing to a top 25 open weight rowing program at a school where we think she will be very happy and have great educational opportunities. Being a lightweight rower gives different options. BTW my D19 also loved Wisconsin and it would have been her top choice if she would have decided to row as a lightweight in college. I have heard from some former lightweight rowers that the pressures to maintain weight as young women’s bodies continue to develop and grow can be intense, such as daily weigh ins and drastic measures to cut or maintain weight. For that reason we were happy that our tall-for-lightweight but small-for-open weight rower went the route of rowing as an open weight in college.
@Midwestrowmom do you have experience with the midwest rowing schools? My daughter is in a weak D1 school right now, a rising sophomore and is thinking about transfering. I know, late on the game with it being May. She is pulled a 7:05 about 6 weeks ago.
Could you suggest some midwest schools that might be interested in taking a transfer student.
I don’t know if I would say we have lots of experience since my D just graduated high school 
but we are in the Midwest and her college search was focused mostly on larger midwest schools with rowing programs.
Sorry but I don’t have any ideas about transfer students since that is not our situation. If you look at the results of the recent Big10 championships Michigan and Ohio State seem to always compete for the top spots. Wisconsin is usually strong, their facilities and Lake Mendota are gorgeous and it is a very strong school academically. I believe Wisconsin may be the only midwest D1 school with a lightweight women’s program? My D also looked at Iowa and Creighton. She liked both of those but they were not strong in her major (engineering). Did not visit Drake as she was only interested in a larger school. A girl on her HS team is rowing at Kansas and loves it there, another girl from our area is attending Kansas in the fall as well.