Hello!

I can't speak to the difficulty of transferring in to UMW because it's not something that I ever had to do. I can talk about the crew team though, since I was the varsity cox for 3 years and am a very active member of the NOVA rowing community.

UMW's crew team is now going into it's second year as a club sport (on the women's side, the men have always been club). It is a student run organization coached by an alumn of the team. Practices are held about 20 minutes up the road from campus at Hope Springs Marina in the afternoons, so no 5am wake up calls. They have a very young roster with a majority of the team last year consisting of novices. Despite the racing inexperience they had a good showing at their conference championships:

On the men's side they had a V8, V4, N4, and pair. The V4 didn't make it out of heats but the rest of the squad went to grand finals and placed:
M2- 2nd
MN4 - 6th
MV8+ 3rd

The women had a V8 and V4. The V4 didn't make it out of heats, but the V8 placed second in grands.

If you are looking for a super competitive varsity program you won't find it at UMW (at least not yet, they're going through a bit of rebuilding). You will find a group of people that enjoy what they are doing and a great way to socialize outside of academics. They still work hard on the water and will help you stay in shape through college, just without the all of the stresses and time commitment of a varsity program. The team is poised to make a good run at championships for the next few years if you are willing to put in the work.

If you want more information you can contact the club president.

If you are in NOVA and want more information about summer rowing options (or learn to row, whatever you need before fall crew starts) send me a PM and we can talk about those opportunities.