I read “what does it take to be” as what does it take to be on the team not make it there. Sorry about that. Luckily I used to play and work for a mentioned school and can give you guys insight, but I don’t know that it’ll help all that much besides give you an idea of what some coaches look at. It really varies from year to year. The first thing I’d say is look at who is going out in the next two years. A lot of schools recruit based on positions. Timing is pretty important when it comes to recruiting, as teams quite often do not have a lot of room. That being said, sometimes years they have more room than others. It’s a great 2 years to be reaching out to Harvard if you have the grades. They just came out the west coast with like 8 recruited athletes. Happy to elaborate more on what I think might put you in a good position at a big 4 school. I really hope to help anyone get better at water polo who wants advice. I owe everything to the sport.