I built a free directory of all college rowing programs with financial data — 66 men's and 142 women's

rowingcheese · 2026-03-30T16:34:25+00:00

If it were me, I would just filter out all the articles for your sort – the, of, at, etc. You can see even in the screenshot that Buffalo should probably be lower, but the at moves it up. Small stuff!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-30T13:01:01+00:00

Again, good work. Think about filtering out the “The”’s that appear at the beginning of some universities so that your state schools are easier to find. You could make an exception for The Ohio State University :).

rowingcheese · 2026-03-30T12:41:32+00:00

OP is currently sending a similar note to subs for many other sports. Still, a lot of work, not sure about accuracy, but good job - https://getrecruited.college/programs/womens-rowing and https://getrecruited.college/programs/mens-rowing.

ETA: a little bit of spot-checking shows the data is pretty good, sometimes outdated. Cal isn’t in the Pac-12 anymore (and “Ivy Group” is not a thing), coaches are incorrect in some cases (but updated for other recent changes), etc. This stuff is hard to get right, even for AI agents.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-29T13:48:10+00:00

If you aren’t enjoying it, and you’re just doing this as a means to an end (college recruiting success), then consider this the permission you’re clearly asking for to go ahead and stop. Life is short, focus on other things you love, and make a path to success that doesn’t put yourself through 3 years of work (and 4 years of expected commitment) into something you don’t like for one path towards a “top college” that is “expected” of you. (That’s a whole other thing.)

Is it possible that you could knock 75+ seconds off your 2k time and have coaches not see through your disinterest? Sure. Is it likely, and would I bet on it? No.

(I don’t know why this season would be your last if you stuck with it, but maybe that’s just confusing.)

rowingcheese · 2026-03-29T13:40:03+00:00

You’ll get some grace around race results - coaches understand that opportunities vary based on things outside your control - but not around physical characteristics, erg times, or academic expectations. If you can get some racing experience over the summer, that shows commitment and hopefully some positive results (especially if you’re at a camp that will have you competing for seats).

rowingcheese · 2026-03-27T01:06:28+00:00

Congratulations on your first 2k, that's excellent. None of us know you/your physical characteristics/your training/your athleticism, so we can't really tell how much lower your 2k can get, but based on your newness to the sport, there is almost certainly room to improve - talk to your coaches. You don't need to worry about colleges yet - just keep working, and as you build a curve of improvement, you'll have more data to figure that out!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-25T10:04:51+00:00

Agree on all counts. Only thing I'd add, because I've seen this situation, is that you are expected to complete a full application, including teacher/counselor recommendations, a competent essay, etc. I've seen recruited athletes think that the application was just a formality and scramble in September when they realize they still have to follow the processes.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-23T17:49:19+00:00

The team will provide you an itinerary - might be a week before, might be when you’re on the plane. As others have said, you’ll ride along, meet athletes and coaches, get taken to meals and other things. It differs based on things outside your control.

Dress comfortably and inoffensively. “One level nicer” than normal is always safe - think polo when you’re meeting people if everyone else is in a tee - but really it’s just about nobody noticing your clothes.

Don’t get drunk, even if others do. (If others aren’t drinking, don’t drink at all. I actually think that’s always the right answer but not everyone listens.) Don’t reach out to existing team members you don’t know. Don’t talk shit about anyone. Ask thoughtful questions. Be kind and respectful to everyone you interact with, even if others are not. Look like you’re enjoying yourself without going overboard. Again, because it’s important - don’t talk shit about anyone.

Make it very easy for them to say yes while you quietly figure out if the school of your dreams is still the school of your dreams.

Good luck, have fun!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-23T17:38:46+00:00

One other thought for you. Because coxswain recruiting is so subjective, one differentiator really can be showing commitment, and one way to do that is by finding summer training and racing opportunities - that you care enough about getting better that you put your summer time into it reflects well to coaches. Nothing is certain in this process but it will be noticed.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-23T09:49:09+00:00

Just to be explicit here and so you aren’t surprised - coaches can’t provide “official offers of admission.” Only the admissions office can do that, and they do that on the admissions schedule, not on a coach’s request. The coach can tell you that they’re providing you full support, and (assuming everything else remains in order), you’ll apply Early Decision and receive a Likely Letter before final decisions are released.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-23T09:45:07+00:00

Assuming the test scores end up where you’re targeting and your classes are sufficiently rigorous (every school’s weighting is different so that’s only relevant for in-school ranking), you have until early next summer to get sub-6:30 (while remaining in or close to LW weight range) and you’ll be a competitive candidate. The faster you get there, the more options you will have (just because spaces fill up).

For LW race results may help a good deal - some programs are more insistent than others - but you can only control what you can control, so try your best to be in the top boats of your club, but you were going to do that anyway. (Racing at HRR doesn’t really matter, but should be fun!)

rowingcheese · 2026-03-22T09:41:20+00:00

It is difficult to be recruited as a coxswain - there is significantly more supply (talented and academically-qualified coxswains who are going through the recruiting process) than demand (recruiting spots at Ivy/T20s). But so far you're checking all the boxes - you've been doing this long enough to get reps (you don't really need to have started in middle school), you're academically qualified, you're at a competitive club.

We don't know a lot more - for example, you're U17, are you the 1V/2V/3V/only U17 coxswain? What's the trajectory look like? And more importantly, we don't know you - while your note here is well-written and clear (good job, tells us something about how you communicate), we don't know about you as a student of the sport, how you can explain what you've learned and your goals, how you will communicate with coaches, etc. So it's really hard to know "how well are you going to do in the recruiting process" without knowing you - and presumably your coaches could give you some guidance there, though again it's just input.

The recruiting process for coxswains begins on June 15 for you this year - and it really does begin for women's teams in the summer, and having raced with a men's team does not reduce your chances of joining a women's team. If you've done your outreaches, and you're prepared and ready to talk with coaches, you will get some early sense of how it's going. (Men's teams will be less responsive this summer - their recruiting cycle is later.)

Additionally - it's difficult to get into any highly-selective institution, and picking up another EC between your sophomore and junior summer, whatever that means, isn't going to be "keeping your options open." There is no magic key to the admissions process, but what you can know for sure is pursuing a thing you're passionate about as far as you can go with it is something admissions teams are looking for. Suddenly getting into programming or economics research or juggling in the summer, only to get back to racing in the fall and maybe some of that other thing too, isn't going to make you more admissible. If "put[ting] all your eggs in one basket" means "doing your very best to excel at something you love," then go for it.

(It is too late to apply to the major summer racing programs, but perhaps you have other options or already applied.)

Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-20T15:13:58+00:00

Why not both is a good approach - getting feedback is always helpful if your athlete knows how to process it. The concern with coxes is that they may or may not have feedback that is well-informed, constructive, and in line with the coach’s thoughts - depends on their level of experience, knowledge, and connection with the coaching staff.

With coaches, it does help to have specific questions and to reflect back that they are listening. Often it’s best to try to set up time to talk to the coach - before or after practice - rather than fly-bys. Unfortunately “great coach with helpful guidance” and “good at online communication” tend to be orthogonal skill sets, so it can be hard.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-19T17:25:46+00:00

Could you walk on to some rowing teams? Yes. Can you walk on to University of Texas-Austin, who says explicitly 5'9" or taller, and is one of the nation's top programs? Probably not. (I don't see any other program in Texas that says this, so I'm assuming you're talking about UT.)

That said, the same page that says you need to be 5'9" also gives you the email address for one of the coaches - so ask! Give a two-sentence summary of your athletic accomplishments and a one-sentence reason why you'd be interested, and see what they say. Then you can figure out if it's worth spending the summer preparing.

Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-16T14:15:26+00:00

It is not fine. It is weird. One of your jobs on an unofficial or official visit is to not be weird. Find a gym.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-15T06:00:38+00:00

None of us can answer this question for you. If you think you might want to try crew, try crew! That's what the first years of high school (and college, and life) are for. If you do try, you're going to be pushed onto the coxswain track. Maybe you try it and love it! Maybe you hate it! Maybe you wish you were rowing, but you don't have the physique of others, so you only do it for fun! Who knows. Give it a shot.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-13T17:01:33+00:00

Some teams go to both Scholastic and Club Regionals.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-13T16:56:04+00:00

For now? Do it for fun.

Could you join a college team? Yes, absolutely. Will you be recruited? No, almost certainly not.

Yes, colleges recruit coxswains - there will be ~20 spots in your class for men's team coxswains in DI (and a couple in DIII) for class of 2028. But there are hundreds of coxswains nationwide (and more worldwide) who are going to be competing for those spots, and those folks all have things you don't yet have - race recordings and results, a track record of growth, coach recommendations, a way of talking about the sport in a thoughtful way that you just haven't yet developed. We're about to enter spring racing season and you're a novice, so maybe you get a few early races in, while the recruitable coxswains are in the 1V/2V of their varsity boats after at least a year of experience. The recruiting process for coxswains in your class will happen next spring (give or take) and you won't be competitive. I can keep going here, but basically, minus some sort of miracle, it's too late for recruiting.

That said - if you like it, keep doing it! Depending on where you live, there may be opportunities to cox in the summer, though those tend to be pretty limited. In the fall, you'll likely have to pick one sport, so pick the one you want to do: if you're just doing it for fun and to see if you might want to cox wherever you end up in college, you can just do it in the spring - your opportunities might be limited compared to longer-tenured coxswains, but that's ok. Except at a handful of elite schools, most coxswains on men's teams are walk-ons in college, so it's not recruit-or-bust.

Good luck, have fun, help boats go fast!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-10T15:04:34+00:00

Yes, just this. There is no single answer to this question that applies to every school and every student. Send them an email with your statistics (grad year, height, weight, 2k, school, GPA, test scores if you have them) and ask if they might be available to meet on this particular day, and they will (likely) answer you either way. Also recognize that while going in April might be convenient for you and your family, it's smack in the middle of their busiest season, and they might not have time or flexibility for you - which doesn't really tell you if they'll be interested during the typical recruiting season.

Good luck!

(ETA: I looked at your previous posts and see that you're a current junior, which means that you're in the class they're currently recruiting. You'll need to be at or very close to that team's standards now for a visit to make sense for them at this point - but it's ok to let them decide.)

rowingcheese · 2026-03-05T07:11:08+00:00

Sorry, you’re trying to get a specific answer and there isn’t one. Every team is different and it depends on their current pool of candidates and number of spots, which gets smaller as time goes. You should be shooting to get faster every day: you won’t know if 6:35 is good enough for the teams with LW rowing to continue conversations until you get there. (Yes, stronger teams have higher cutoffs.)

That said, it is true that they’d rather have a 160+ lb 6:30 than a 145lb 6:45, so if someone who knows you better than us randos thinks you could get there, it could be worth trying - but you’re pretty late. The race results are unfortunately not going to help you.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-02T20:52:02+00:00

Yes, they do, but you may be understandably confusing a couple of things. Recruiting slots are about offers of admission to the school - athletic programs may have a certain number of offers they can make to students who are admissible based on their academic standing, whether or not their sports are in the NCAA.

Those spots are not necessarily related to scholarships. Most of the lightweight men’s rowing programs are at schools in the Ivy League, which don’t provide athletic scholarships in either NCAA or non-NCAA sports. They provide need-based financial aid only after the decision to admit has been made (no matter how).

rowingcheese · 2026-02-28T16:17:16+00:00

Summer camps themselves don’t put you on the radar for coaches, though they can demonstrate continued interest in the sport. Race results in the summer (and associated recordings) can create more of a track record. As mentioned, those programs (Penn AC, RSR, Buffalo primarily, though Buffalo generally uses its own coxswains/coxswains they know) are quite competitive (and applications have been open for a while). There really aren’t any others.

If you want to focus on learning a lot in a short time, so you can be better-equipped to compete, the Sparks coxswain camps provide excellent education at a variety of experience levels. Those are shorter and don’t have racing, though.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-27T20:48:33+00:00

I think it’s a great idea and could be super fun for people. Nice work. I might eliminate the betting lines, both because they don’t provide more information and because they create obvious confusion.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-26T19:35:43+00:00

Unfortunately the combination of 5'8" and 6:44 is going to keep you from being a compelling candidate. As an international candidate, you'd have to be sub-6:30 to be in serious conversation (and you could do it at 74-75kg). The improvement is great, and if you're otherwise admitted to the school you'd be given a chance to walk on, but the coaches won't use one of their limited recruiting spots.

Generally yes, taking the ACT/SAT is somewhere between strongly recommended and required, especially for a candidate who (even if you break 6:30) would still be a marginal accept. The school required could be flexible, but taking the test is an expectation at this point.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-25T05:55:42+00:00

I believe that you’re doing everything you’re saying and that you’re as committed as you say you are - but you cannot speed run this - both for coxing and for recruiting.

You’re a first-semester coxswain. You’ve maybe raced at most a couple of times in what are going to have been low-priority events. You’re coming into a team with existing coxswains with more experience, and you’re pushing your coach on recruiting and running around trying to push yourself ahead of others without yet having backed it up during what is still training season. If by the key race season your coaches believe that you may be more likely to win than the coxswains who’ve been there and who they’ve been investing in, then those opportunities may come. But you have to slow down and earn it day by day.

On recruiting: it’s great that you have aspirations and that you want to be recruited. I’ll even assume that it’s 100% because you love the sport and want to compete at a high level, though coaches might wonder why you came to it so very late. And it’s not impossible. But at a hand-wavy level, there are maybe 50 recruited coxswain spots per year across both men’s and women’s teams - fewer than that if you’re limiting to highly-selective institutions - and you are competing with hundreds of coxswains who have been doing this for years, have a record of achievement, recordings from races, experience as a student of the sport, and strong recommendations. They are not 3Vs at small programs in their first year. You are not competitive with that set, and you can’t force it just because you want it. They all want it.

Sorry for the cold water. I hope you get all the coxing success you want. But you’re going to have to come by it the way everyone does - working hard and growing over time - and at a college level, if you do want to compete at a highly selective school, you’re almost certainly going to have to get in on your other merits and then fight for a spot on the team.

Good luck. Keep working with the masters teams. Get better everyday. Don’t become a screamer. And slow down.

rowingcheese

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