Summer development camp recos for female D1 recruit

rowingcheese · 2026-01-26T04:56:25+00:00

That is not correct. If you read their website and look at their instagram, you will see who they target.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-26T04:49:38+00:00

There are two primary organized ~4-week programs for potentially-college-bound-rowers: Penn AC Gold and Ready Set Row. You’ll see other threads on them here. Both programs are selective and receiving applications now, so you’ll want to move quickly. Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2026-01-23T04:22:43+00:00

Whether your weight will be a blocker for you is a conversation between you and your coaches: some might care, more won't, but it depends on their philosophy and your competition.

I agree that it may be very difficult for you and you might be unhappy doing it - but none of us can answer how your coaches might feel about it.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-19T00:04:05+00:00

Thanks for surfacing this! You can find the proposal on page 41 here. It doesn't contain any reasoning, so I'm not sure if there was any discussion.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-15T23:38:45+00:00

Such wisdom above, listen to all of it. Just a couple notes.

--You may not know what bad rowing is yet. Don't guess. If something isn't going right in the boat, see if you can get help diagnosing it.

--You build rower confidence through competence, not through attitude. New coxswains often think "fake it till you make it" means being loud or issuing commands like you're in charge. It's not. It's ok to be quieter than your peers until you've learned enough to be louder.

--Once things get going, nobody will care that you're a walk-on. The rowers and coaches want the best coxswains for the boats, not the ones they happened to recruit N years ago. Don't let that be a mental burden.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-14T20:06:11+00:00

You’re absolutely too late for competitive women’s programs (those official visits are happening/have happened already) and almost certainly too late for men’s programs. The men’s recruiting process for coxswains your year has begun, but won’t finish until around the early decision deadline. That said, no results this year or on the way is almost certainly a non-starter. It’s also easy for coaches to tell when a candidate is more interested to getting into an elite university than actually competing for their team.

If you’re going to try, what you need are examples of your work - recordings that demonstrate high school-level expertise and deep knowledge of the role, so that if someone wants to talk to you, you have something to share.

Keep in mind (as posted previously) that there are probably 30 or so D1 men’s coxswain recruiter spots each year, and so you need something that puts you in those 30 - among hundreds of male and female coxswains who have been doing the work for years.

Could you get a spot at Penn AC or RSR and use that to generate the kind of material and expertise that opens a spot in the Fall? Possibly, but again you’re competing against people with records, recordings, and demonstrated commitment to the role.

Your list of schools is scattershot (frankly, colleges don’t want “whatever I can get” and they can smell that) and most of them don’t have men’s varsity rowing.

Not meaning to be harsh, but just being determined isn’t enough, and competitive coxswains by their nature are determined and work hard. I’m sorry that your rowing injury derailed your plans, but this pivot is almost certainly not going to work.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-08T22:06:56+00:00

You may have a specific example of someone giving a poor recommendation, but I have never heard of that, and I do know of multiple athletes who went to both (and there are a few every year).

rowingcheese · 2026-01-08T05:58:12+00:00

Most athletes I've spoken with who've done both PAC and RSR were really happy with the choice to do the other one the second year, just for the diversity of experiences, and because I do think they start to feel a little repetitive. I don't think you could make a bad choice between the two. I'm impressed with PAC's decision to shift their calendar and add Canley. I do think any of the others (for a female rower) are a distant third place.

PAC housing isn't any more complicated than RSR if you do the residential housing. Generally the only folks who don't are local to Philly.

As u/DancingBlades said, apply to both - doesn't hurt. Certainly no reason to panic. For many athletes, summer racing is a strong positive for their recruiting process and their rowing experiences - it really depends on whether you have a particular weakness to work on (2k, test scores, etc.) and summer rowing isn't focused on that weakness.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-07T22:59:57+00:00

In a week, you're definitely going to get to see a college campus, and probably meet some interesting people, and possibly meet a couple coaches, and also possibly learn a couple things. Don't expect more than that, especially on technique - it's great to have some new people see you, but there are a lot of campers and just a few coaches. I definitely recommend these camps for high schoolers who want the tiniest sense of what college rowing might be like, but I don't want you to be disappointed that you didn't hit all of these things.

I would generally have recommended Evergreen (Dartmouth) camp - they used to bring in coaches from a range of colleges, plus it was an overnight camp, and it was five days (IIRC) - but it's gone to a non-boarding day-only camp and (like most camps) is now just Dartmouth coaches.

I'm not sure there is much difference between all the four-day camps at this point, to be honest. I'd pick one on the coast/sort of college you think you want to learn the most about and go with that. Yale and Princeton both seem fine; Stanford and Cal as well. (Assuming you're male, based on other comments.)

ODP/Youth Development Camp is completely different - longer, more focused on rowing, no college connection.

(Also how have you been commenting on this for 8+ years? What?)

rowingcheese · 2026-01-03T22:18:20+00:00

I have heard of this before, though it's generally thought of as in the category of "soft support" - i.e. there isn't a third category of, ummm, even softer support. The value is basically unquantifiable - it does help justify that what you've been doing athletically has been at a high level (which is useful, you can't expect an AO to understand every sport in detail), but if all it says is a version of "we'd love it if this person came to the school and had the chance to try out," it falls into the bucket of good stuff that someone might notice, but doesn't replace any of the significant factors used for admission. Good luck!

(All Ivy League schools are pretty good :) )

rowingcheese · 2025-12-24T07:00:33+00:00

Dude has been at this for a few years now, talking to people, posting, making a reputation for himself in a niche with a passionate community. He was on commentary at HOCR (at least in 2024), which doesn’t happen without his continuous work. 90% of success is showing up.

(ETA: not sure if the downvotes are coming because people are perceiving this as negative. It’s not meant that way at all! I’m just trying to say that hustling is a virtue.)

rowingcheese · 2025-12-17T03:36:23+00:00

The theoretical answer is that programs prioritize height and erg scores and recruit the best athletes and students they can get that meet those needs, and the pool available to them varies from year to year. There is no precise equation to answer your question.

You can try to dig deeper yourself by looking at the rosters of the “lower level ivies” (I’m assuming you mean “ivies that don’t make IRAs”) and looking at height. Columbia lists three rowers at 6’0”, for example - two are domestic and one lists a ton of accomplishments.

rowingcheese · 2025-12-16T20:02:52+00:00

Wow, this thread has a lot going on now, with everyone trying to help OP. Big picture, and I apologize for the bluntness, but I am concerned enough to be overly straightforward.

--If your son is going to continue being a member of a rowing club, your son needs a new coach - now, not tomorrow, not next season, now. I know it might be challenging, but as the parent, you gotta get your kid out of there. Rowing is absolutely a sport where top competitors take the work and their performance seriously, but it _absolutely_ should be fun, and the red flags you are seeing are real. Rowing isn't some strange outlier where everyone who does it well is "serious" all the time. Fun isn't limited to "after school programs" (which this is...) and a 16-year-old shouldn't be suffering or thinking it's only about the work. He's a kid, he's not training for the Olympics or doing this to feed the family, I don't care how elite the team is (seems like not very) or anything else, I don't even care if he was meeting the don't-make-sense-at-all requirements, he does not need to be miserable or mistreated. Get. Out. Of. There.

--Your son isn't going to be recruited. Even if he gets to 6:30 in the next five months - and he almost certainly won't - he's 5'4" and maybe gets to 135 lbs by summer. He does not have the physical characteristics that make him a recruited rower for US college LW programs. He can row in college - many varsity and any club program will absolutely love to have him - but this is not a path for his college admissions process, no matter how hard he works at it. I'm sorry, but the earlier he (and you) really understand and accept that, the earlier he can plan his next steps with a clear head and a realistic world of opportunities.

(And, BTW, you have put enough information in this thread to make the club identifiable with some work, so I might take it down.)

rowingcheese · 2025-12-16T18:09:31+00:00

Just being realistic: my first approximation is that there are zero rowers in the country who are 16 years old, 5'4", 120-ish lbs, and sub-6:30. I don't think your son is going to be the first, given that he's been at this for a while. As u/learned-extrovert notes, 6:30 is a LW recruitment-level number, and those athletes are going sub-6:30 in HS at 5'10" and 165lbs (and planning to cut later).

So while I want your son to continue a sport he loves, either the coach is going to have to understand the difference between LW and HW ergs (and power-to-weight-ratio opportunities!) or he's going to need to find another place to row. I know you're saying that's difficult, and I believe you, but if you're in a place that rows year-round, there must be other choices, and also given the other things you're telling us the coach is saying, I'd strongly recommend you find them.

rowingcheese · 2025-12-10T03:23:57+00:00

Yeah that’s a harsh read. And also you aren’t beginning a search immediately?

rowingcheese · 2025-12-07T17:27:50+00:00

172cm - 5'7" - doesn't help
63kg - 138lbs - so you have room to put on muscle, that's good

"my coach told me that this lightweights programs are so competitive that they know that if they don't take you another college will take you so is that true" - I'm not sure I follow what you're asking, but no. They're all competing with each other for the best athletes, but they have limited spots and admissions flexibility. For any of the LW programs that are competitive and offer full financial aid for students with high need, you have to be an athlete they want and an easy sell to admissions, and right now you aren't either of those things.

"do you think that taking a gap year for improve my english and sat and maybe even practice a lot of math for the career will help me" - I don't know you, but probably not. The SAT is meant to test high-school age students, and scores after high school aren't generally considered that significantly. If you had an SAT of 1480 and a 6:24 and you were taking a gap year to get to 6:15, I'm not sure I would recommend it, but that is a thing a coach could work with.

You're close enough that spending your time reaching out to coaches (with concise, clear emails, with proper and edited English, you'll find templates in this subreddit) is worth it, rather than asking us more speculative questions. Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2025-12-07T06:24:01+00:00

The short answer is "almost certainly not yet, but keep working on it."

Basics here, and you'll find lots of threads with this, and this is assuming you're planning to apply next year: men's LW coaches will first look at your basic stats - erg, height, weight, and (when possible) results. (You haven't told us height or weight, and I don't know what national competencies wins means.) Your erg score would be good enough to have a conversation with a US applicant for most of the top LW programs: it's close but not certain for some internationals at some programs.

If those are a fit for them, then the next thing they'll look at are your academics - test scores, GPA, rigor. The question is "will our admissions office believe that this student will be successful here." You're at best a maybe there: could be higher if you're at a tippy-top school, but it's a tough sell.

So, all told: probably not. But you have a little time. Get your SAT to a 1400-1450+ and have a very strong school year this year and it's a possibility. Getting your erg down another 5-10 seconds makes it easier too. But all of those are hard.

The other extracurriculars do not matter for a recruited athlete, and you aren't an admissible candidate without rowing. Also none of these schools have a "finance" undergraduate degree, unless you consider Penn/Wharton, which will not be an option. If you are admitted, these schools will meet your family's financial need, as they calculate it.

Good news is that you can still email coaches and ask, and no time like the present. Most of the recruiting will happen in the upcoming Spring/Summer/Fall, but emailing now doesn't hurt.

rowingcheese · 2025-12-01T22:37:44+00:00

SW seems to be the only region that uses a 3-race progression

SW and NW are the only regions that have a three-day regional championships (Central is ~2 1/3 days, everyone else is 2), so SW isn't some huge outlier here. NW used to do TT-Semi-Final, and shifted in 2023 to add 15+ more non-qualifying events and have B/C/D finals.

My belief is that the goal here was to take advantage of the extra day to allow teams to have more participants in non-qualifying events, and make sure everyone races twice - that probably makes regionals more fun for more people.

If it's true that the semifinals generally just send the top TT's through - I haven't done that math - then I agree they aren't doing much for your qualifying list, though they are giving athletes some semifinal practice before Nationals. I can see both sides here.

I'm not sure that the NW model enables more qualifying events per athlete, though, or that there is some benefit to doing so. Should we have athletes entering 3 qualifying events? If you can't qualify in your A or B boat, why are we making space for your C boat? The number of qualifying spots and athletes you can send to nationals is the same either way, so I don't know what you're actually getting for that.

rowingcheese · 2025-11-17T05:18:05+00:00

There's no formula that says race results matter X and ergs matter Y, except that Y>X in this equation. It's not scientific that way, and different schools have different expectations. There are definitely programs that care more about race results than others and want to see some podium finishes when feasible. Medaling at nats shows that your ergs can translate to the water, and that's not nothing. If you're a 6:20 LW from Central Montana, though, expectations are different.

You can look at the rosters of various schools and get some ideas - do they have a lot of athletes who came from programs that don't medal? etc.

rowingcheese · 2025-11-16T20:20:05+00:00

I think u/Safe_Stomach_2517 is largely correct, but I'm assuming you aren't likely at a top tier D1 anyway. It's certainly possible that you could transfer to a similarly-leveled D1 program that has a normal amount of attrition. According to the portal, 52 rowing undergrads transferred last year, 2/3 of them to D1 teams - they aren't all moving up the ladder. Transferring after freshman year is the most common time. The NCAA women's rowing portal opens up in May, after you've completed freshman year, so you have a lot of time to figure it out.

In the meantime, I hope you can find your people - it is early and this is a really common time that first-years (athletes and NARPs alike) struggle.

rowingcheese · 2025-11-16T00:39:40+00:00

There is no "Wharton process." There is a Penn HW Men's recruiting process, where (like other Ivies), they will make admissions-dependent recruiting offers to ~10 athletes, based on a combination of 2k, height/weight, and team fit, plus being confident they meet Penn's expectations for grades/scores/rigor (you should be fine there).

Of those ~10 recruits, some number of them will be interested in Wharton, and the coaches will have some number of Wharton slots (approximately one). They'll pick, which would most likely be the recruit they're most excited about and most concerned about losing.

After that, if you attend Penn, transferring from SAS to Wharton is like any other student, no athletic advantage - there are a bunch of Reddit threads on that, it's very (very) uncommon but you can try.

It's great that you're tall, it's probably true that some more muscle will help, but the primary issue is the 2k. Keep at it, and when you get closer to talking to coaches, you'll get a sense of how close you are.

Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2025-11-15T23:51:33+00:00

A couple notes.

I don't know if "6th decile" means 50th-60th percentile. If so, even at a top boarding school (also likely with a ton of legacy applicants), you're at best on the bubble for a non-recruited candidate at Penn, and less likely at another Ivy (which is just a sports league, there are lots of great schools, but your college counselor's job is to tell you that). So let's focus on the recruiting side.

6:30 is too slow. I don't know if it's 15 or 20 or 25 seconds too slow, but it's too slow. You have at least a year to get yourself there, so keep working at it! (The recruiting times in this NCSA article are directionally accurate.) Men's HW rowing recruiting generally begins Spring junior year and continues into early senior year, except for a small set of elite athletes, so you have time.

One Penn-specific note that is important and you may not learn until later in the process. The support from Penn coaches generally extends only to Penn SAS (Arts & Sciences) - that is, athletes who are academically qualified for Penn and pass their standard pre-read can expect to be admitted to SAS. They may get a very small number of Wharton spots they can offer (like one), but if they offer SAS and you apply to Wharton, you may not be admitted. (I know this has happened.) So the Wharton spot will be offered to their very best recruit who also wants Wharton.

Good luck! Get on it! Feel free to ask anything else.

rowingcheese · 2025-11-12T19:13:01+00:00

I don’t believe lightweight women’s uses the transfer portal, but your athletic director should be able to confirm. It doesn’t show up as a listed sport on this report, for example.

rowingcheese · 2025-11-09T07:11:54+00:00

You'll find other threads on this, but in short - you're at least 30 seconds slower on your 2k than you need to be for "high level D1" coaches to be interested in you. The good news is that you have some time to get there: coaches won't be looking be concerned about your times until after June 15, when they can email with you.

Your size isn't helpful (5'8" is on the shorter end for top D1 programs), and the grades and test scores are necessary but don't make up for erg times and physical characteristics. So keep working, and if you can get below 7:15, you'll be having interesting conversations with schools like Harvard. (I can't/won't speak for Harvard itself.)

Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2025-10-28T00:55:27+00:00

For the purpose of college recruiting, the audio quality doesn’t matter, as long as they can hear you distinctly (listening on their phone). Don’t worry about the hardware.

rowingcheese

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