Example: If a student visits Cornell from Oxford, could they walk on the basketball team for a season if the coach wanted them? Or are sports restricted to students who are enrolled full time in that university and will receive their degree from that university?
Thanks for any info.
I don’t know about any formal restrictions but the answer is pretty much no. Unless, I suppose, you were a professional level player, i.e. one of the best in the world. I just don’t think the coach would be interested. It is likely to disrupt team chemistry.
Are you talking D1 or D3?
Or Cornell specifically?
For the record, some D3 teams are better than some D1 teams but the financial structure and therefore participation rules are different.
There are also competitive club teams, which would seem to fit better with a one-semester student.
I doubt a visiting student can walk on to an interscholastic sports team. But they probably can play club sports for fun.
It is not completely unusual for international stars to be added to swimming rosters mid year, even just ahead of championships. I don’t know if it’s the same for T&F, but imagine it’s a harder deal on a team sport, particularly one that straddles semesters, like basketball. I have no idea what the academic situation is for these athletes.
The only way to know for sure is to contact the school, but I agree it is unlikely that would be allowed, specially now when most D1 teams are facing roster limits and budget cuts. I would definitely explore the (sometimes very competitive) club options.
Contact the coach and ask.
I walked onto a D3 tennis team at a SLAC as an international exchange student back in the stone age. This was not in one of the top leagues and not a top college though and I turned out to be an impact player.
NCAA rules state that a player must be enrolled as a full time student for the university.
But is a visiting/exchange student considered a full-time student of the university by the NCAA?
Again, I’d reach out to the coach.
Yeah, I guess it depends what OP means by “visiting”.
And the other issue is a single semester. Basketball season runs November to March. Highly unlikely a coach would use a roster spot for a player who wouldn’t be there the whole season.
In my case it was a direct exchange between my European university and the US college. There was no exchange organization involved and I was a normal senior at that school.
Think about the reverse - the US ringers who row in the Boat Race have actually matriculated at Oxford/Cambridge (usually for a masters degree program). They aren’t JYAers.
However my recollection is that @milgymfam’s D19 won a blue (in another sport) during her exchange year abroad at Oxford. That’s not uncommon if you stay for a whole year.
The Boat Race is a specific case where Oxford were fed up with losing repeatedly and tried (successfully for now) to exclude some of the Cambridge crew this year. However they still lost 
We have a neighbor who was a ringer for Cambridge. She was a four year 1V rower for Harvard then went to Cambridge for a 1 year masters in psychology. Was a big thrill for her to row in the Boat Race. I seem to recall that there was a Princeton men’s rower who got a masters in film studies at Cambridge. A post grad certificate in education has to be harder than that.
This makes me think that an undergrad student on exchange from Oxford at a US university could row for the school, if the exchange was spring semester?
Generally speaking Oxbridge undergraduates can’t do anything other than a year abroad (though that could in theory be split between two locations). Even then it’s very uncommon except for students studying languages.
If you aren’t competitive on a university-wide basis at Oxbridge then you probably aren’t going to be in the varsity crew at a top US rowing college. But if you are already at Oxbridge and competitive at that level then competing for a seat in the Boat Race is likely better than anything you could do at a college level in the US.
However national level U.K. rowers do go to the US for undergrad if they are interested in a rowing career (or maybe couldn’t get admitted to Oxbridge undergrad on an academic basis). Several of the UK Olympic men’s eight last year were in the Yale crew.
More broadly I struggle to think of a major US college sport where an Oxbridge undergrad would be competitive for a D1 team. The standard of sports (and level of commitment) in the US is just so much higher than in the U.K. That’s why it’s usually the other way around.
The OPs question is if an international exchange student can play a sport at a US college, not the other way around.
Let’s not get bogged down by the Oxbridge example. Could a McGill or University of Melbourne (or any other foreign uni) student, who is studying for one spring semester in the US (via their home university’s exchange program) join and row with the host university in the US. Let’s use Penn or UVA as the host examples. Not asking what is common. Asking if the above scenario is possible/allowed. Assume the rower has the skill. Thank you.
I though the original question was asking about basketball?
Yes, per NCAA rules this would be allowed. Of course the final decision is the coach’s. The student would have to meet all the NCAA requirements and go thru the certification process (if D1/D2). http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligibility_center/Student_Resources/CBSA.pdf
The only people who can answer your question and say if this is realistically something they would consider are the coaches. If you are talking basketball at UVA or Penn, IMO it’s not likely coaches will allow a student who won’t be there for the whole season to play (if they are there for first semester) or if they show up for the season after it already started (semester 2.)