2023 women's D1 rowing recruiting advice

coffeeat3
Sat, 21 May 2022 17:52:11 +0000

@nonamemichigan - @cinnamon1212 has a good memory My daughter was HS Class of 2021, so her recruiting experience may be different due to Covid, no regattas Spring of Jr year and all of senior year and no official visits.

She had an outstanding result at HOC in the Fall of 2019 (jr year) and that is when her list changed away from some programs and added more with a lot of coach attention at the event and team introductions/hang-outs.

She also took her ACT in the summer of 2019 and had her score by HOC plus strong grades, school elected leadership and a seasonal part time job. Here is what we learned and it may differ by area/experience:

Rowers mature at different rates - so there will be some that are not even on the the radar yet and will jump out at the summer programs including National team or Fall 2022 regattas. Coaches will be looking at regional results too with those occurring around the country now.

OV’s in the Fall determine a lot and most programs offer more OV visits vs slots. Research can tell you more about each school and if they offer 20 OV’s for 6 spots etc. The rowers we know that got OV’s off Covid years all happened after HOC.

Fit is important - all teams have different cultures and I recommend your daughter look at social media posts by teams. She will be spending 20-30 hours a week with the team - she needs to love the team and the school. She also needs to understand if majors are limited and classes during Spring season are limited - ie: no lab courses, some online, restricted majors. This varies by school. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.

My daughter eliminated several Ivy programs and other larger high ranking D1 programs due to fit - both from her unofficial visits in Feb 21 (got lucky to get 7 of those in, as all shut down by Covid weeks later).

Her initial contact list was approx 20 programs - she was in communication with 19 of those coaches (Boston University is the only no reply) compared to Harvard replied to her within 2 hours of her initial inquiry - so a bit of a crap shoot She refined the list to much smaller (and that is where my anxiety went through the roof) and by the summer and early fall of senior year was now only communicating with 5 programs. She reluctantly applied to 2 EA schools and our state flagship - pretty much forced by her amazing hs counselor.

She had pre-reads at all 5 - passed and then waited… She had officials via Zoom with 3 - the other two she dropped or they dropped her - both were not good fits (others on CC would disagree) and we are so impressed that she was able to really see school fit over name. With that said, she is at an Ivy - but one that fits her both academically and culturally.

She was told by one Ivy that they wanted her and asked her for confirmation that she would pick them - it was her top pick and she communicated that to the coach in August. As it got closer to submit an ED app - they went quiet. Buy stock in Kleenex! The school (where she ended up) was the most noncommittal in the upfront process and she took this as no interest - she tells us that it was always her #1 - but she kept it to herself, as she thought they were not going to make an offer based on their very robotic communication.

For your daughter, she seems like she is in a great place and from our experience - nothing is going to happen earlier than Fall. Academic pre-reads by admissions can not happen until after July 1st and that can take 2-3 weeks - so be prepared to wait. OV’s will be offered for the Fall - if she makes the short list.

It is also important to understand roster size - some of these schools have huge rosters - does she have a chance to get a boat freshman/sophomore or ever? You can learn a lot by going to each school’s roster and listed boat results. Do they cut ? She needs to be happy at the school if crew doesn’t work out.

Regarding financial - my daughter was never asked if we needed financial aid. She was told by coaches that offer $ estimated amounts she would receive in merit or sport $'s. $ never came up with the Ivy programs, but they do have financial aid calculators and imagine they expect parent’s to due diligence on affordability - there is zero sport/merit $ in this division.

I think we are in the minority - but we had zero involvement in the process except to “coach” her behind the scenes. We never were invited on a phone call (I do think her HS coach spoke to some of the programs), I sat in a coffee shop for all her unofficial visits (so maybe parents get face time at officials - I don’t know) and coaches never asked her to go get me We just met the coaches a few weeks ago at a regatta !

Hopefully I answered some of your questions - my daughter is very private and not happy I reply on CC - I try my best to keep a few things vague to avoid identifying her.

My daughter is now part of the recruiting team for Zooms and OV’s - as several of the athletes felt they lost some people to other programs due to the coaches low key communication.

Lastly, your daughter should keep communicating and hopefully will be on the water this summer - an update to coaches a couple times this summer seems to be appreciated.

It sounds like your daughter is doing a great job managing the process and just be prepared for a stressful ride until the acceptance is in hand.

Good luck and enjoy this time too.

PS: I felt a little parent revenge (no clue if my daughter cares), as her boat beat the team that ghosted her after asking her if they were her top choice every time they raced this year.