College Rowing [international, needs FA/scholarships, 4.0 GPA]

College Search & Lists
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Hi, my 15y/o daughter (class of 2030) is starting to look for a college where she can combine academics and rowing. She is an international student and would need financial or merit aid. She is a good student (unweighted GPA 4,0 - will do the ACT in September). She is interested in biochemistry & math. Which colleges would be a good match? What would be a good 2k erg time at her age and what would be needed for DI Rowing? And when should she start contacting coaches? Any help / suggestion is very welcome! Thanks!!! Max

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Ps Brown, Duke or Princeton would be dream schools for her but we dont know how realistic these options are. She is also interested Umass Lehigh and Temple.

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Paging @coffeeat3

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The schools you mentioned only give need based financial aid, not merit based aid. Run their Net price calculators to see if the cost estimates would be affordable for you, based on your established budget for college. Note that NPCs aren’t set up for international students, so the accuracy might not be there
.also make sure to disregard any US federal aid the estimates show, as your D won’t be eligible for that. If and when your D is recruited, she can ask the coach for a financial aid pre-read. To be clear, if you won’t qualify for need based aid (or need based aid won’t be enough to get costs to your budget), your D will be limited in pursuing schools that offer merit aid.

At the NCAA site you can research all the schools that have women’s rowing, here’s D1
https://web3.ncaa.org/directory/memberList?type=12&division=I&sportCode=WCR

Generally D1 and D2 coaches can have contact with women’s rowing athletes june 15 after sophomore year. I’ll defer to others about erg times for a HS soph and its progression. What are here current erg times? Based on that, your D might also consider D3 schools.

I would also encourage her to prepare for and take an SAT or ACT as soon as possible
this calendar year for sure. Coaches want to see test scores, especially from internationals, including schools that are test optional.

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Actually, Duke does give merit aid and also athletic scholarships as do Lehigh and Temple. Rowing is an equivalency sport so there is limited athletic money. As a member of the Ivy League, Princeton does not offer merit or athletic scholarships.

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Agreed, I should have said some of the schools mentioned. Hopefully OP will clarify if they will qualify for need based aid and possibly even their budget.

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Thanks!!! Useful information. Do I understand correctly that sport scholarships for rowing are limited also in D1 schools?

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As this is one of the top programs in the nation, obviously you have to be very strong to be recruited, but I just wanted to clarify that, although there are no scholarships in the Ivy League, Princeton (and others) are need blind and meet full need for international students. There are many international athletes at these schools who receive significant financial aid, often amounting to more than scholarships would provide.

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Hello and welcome to CC. My daughter is a college rower (Ivy) and I will try to be a bit helpful in the rowing and academics piece - but I know nothing about financial aid for students- a lot of other posters do and are quite helpful.

Presuming by class of 2030 - so that means HS class of 2026 (CC uses HS class as identifier) - she would be entering her junior year of HS and is 15 years old, correct? From a U.S standard (not rule) - she is young - most U.S (again not all) graduate HS at 18.

If that is the case, it will be important to understand where she currently stands as a rower and her physical development. Is she one of the top rowers (based on ERG and water results) in your country? Does she have regatta results - what size boat? You don’t have to answer any of these questions to maintain privacy - but it is important for you to understand where she currently stands. Would a rowing/training gap year make sense?

Is she a lightweight rower - if yes, does her body type appear to be one that would maintain that classification? If yes, there are only a handful of schools that offer lightweight rowing and that would be a very targeted list. If not lightweight - does she currently have the height and build at age 15 to be impactful on her current team?

Does her current team send kids to the US for college and to row? Her current coach should be a resource and able to set expectations of where your daughter falls. Other parents at your club that have been through the process (especially on the financial side) could be great resources too.

For academics, rowers have strong academics - and some schools may limit her major. My daughter and all her recruited crew friends has their ACT/SAT score in hand the Fall of junior year - this was very helpful - at that time the target score was 34+. At my daughter’s college several of her teammates are on the science and med track and it is hard. Practice is all school year, part of the winter holiday break (so limited time home), all of Spring break and equals around 30+ hours per week. It can be very hard to schedule lab classes that do not interfere with practice, so it is important to understand how each team supports the rower and if it is even possible. I would recommend you look at current school rosters - if you don’t see science or engineering majors on the team - then it is most likely impossible.

Several schools my daughter spoke to in the exploratory phase told her outright no engineering, no lab science and no business school (these were large public D1 schools with top teams) and some courses would be online. The message received was you are an athlete first and foremost. Of course, these are also the schools that would have awarded her athletic scholarship $.

For the few schools you listed, the coaching style and team dynamics are VERY different. Fit for school AND team matter - so a lot more research needs to happen by your daughter (she can follow team social media accounts to start). Scrub those rosters to look for international rowers too - that will start to paint a picture of the team too. I know that is hard being an international recruit - as the US kids get exposure at races like Head of the Charles in Boston each Fall plus coaches go to Youth Nationals. Also exposure through their clubs and their club recruits to learn more about program fit.

I don’t know the rules around athletic money and if your child decides they no longer want to participate in college - can you afford to stay if that money goes away - same with merit money. What happens with injury - I am sure others can chime in on those pieces.

I am not sure if any of this is helpful. I can’t remember my daughter’s ERG times from HS and remember that things all started moving Fall her junior year after Head of the Charles. She handled all communication on her own and we were not involved except to take her on unofficial visits (mid-winter of her junior year) to tour schools and she met coaches and teams on her own during these visits. She had official pre-reads in the summer prior to senior year from a small group of schools that she liked and no official visits due to Covid shut-down (all “visits” were over Zoom with team members). Offers came late Fall - it was slow and stressful due to Covid, previous athletes taking gap years etc


CC is a very helpful community and remember to have a bit of fun too - there are so many rowing programs and US schools with amazing academics and committed professors. There are excellent D3 schools too - no athletic money and unsure of FA for internationals, but top education and nice teams.

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Here is an older thread that may have some new insights - also do a search to see others.

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Have her look into Syracuse for rowing. Between rowing and academics they were very generous with our OOS friend.

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THANK YOU @coffeeat3 . This is so helpful. D is indeed 15 y/o and has time to do her research. From reading the posts it seems indeed wise to reconsider pro’s and cons of D1 and D3.

Unfortunately it is - as far as we know - not so common for rowers here to go to the US which makes it difficult to get a picture what the possibilities would be. This information really helps! I dont want to put too detailed information about my daughter on a forum but since she has until now always been the best performing student in her year at her school (academically) and started to compete at national level we thought she should give it a try.

She will certainly look into Syracuse and maybe she can get in contact with internationals by following the Instagram accounts


I thought we would be a bit early but after reading the replies I think starting early to do some research is not a bad idea at all :grinning:

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Assuming she is heading into Junior year, it is not early (nor late) but unless rowing is different from other sports, recruiting started on June 15th, meaning that is when she could start (and should) communicating with coaches.

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Sorry but is she in the equivalent of her junior year if she has 2 more years in HS after the summer holidays?

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Yes. That’s correct. Kids that have 2 more years have stated their recruiting process. Some will commit as early as this fall.

Remember that Early Decision deadlines for these students are only a little more than a year away.

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Very uncommon to have a commitment jr year in my limited experience. I know no female crew athlete that committed Fall of jr year. Yes for coach communication to start now - but historically a late recruit sport since a timed sport. Also, OP’s daughter is young and unsure if that has impacted her development - this could hinder her recruiting desirability.

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Also, since you are merit money hunting and your daughter sounds strong academically - I would highly encourage looking at right fit schools that offer merit and have club crew. Club crew can be great and opens up options without recruitment. Note - I am unsure how merit works for international students.

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I understand it’s a long game, I was just making them aware of the time line in the sense that it’s not “really early”. This summer is a good time to start casting a wide net and putting herself on the radar. Hopefully they have an opportunity to visit sometime during the year to check out some of these programs in person.

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@Max4

Checked with another rower parent with a daughter recruited this past year and committed to an Ivy - sub 7:20 is very strong. More flexibility based on program and her physical traits - ie: 6’ tall, getting PRs throughout the year and on water performance would bring that time up - but above high 7 would be rare for the top programs.

When your daughter reaches out with her numbers, gpa and ideally a test score
especially as it sounds like these coaches will not be familiar with her program - she will get a good idea if she is competitive based on responses.

Lastly, I keep coming back to your daughter being young and if she has the build and strength of older girls?

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My kid just graduated HS and is a recruited D1 rower. Below 7:20 at this age and trending downward will get her interest from college coaches in the top programs at this point. Top finishes at the U19 world youth rowing championship or the equivalent (your country’s championship/marquee races) would be great too since ergs don’t float. Height can be a big deal with top-end programs - my kid is not quite 5’9” so she would have needed a lot more speed (under 7:10 and dropping) to be a serious recruit for the Texas/Stanford/Princeton caliber teams. There are also the ‘academic’ spots on the Ivy rosters for the women who don’t have the potential for the top boats - although I’m not certain what the metrics are for those spots.

We found these books helpful specifically for the rowing recruiting:

  1. Looking for a Full Ride by Renee Lopez: Looking For A FULL RIDE?: An Insider's Recruiting Guide (PHYSICAL BOOK- NOT Released Digitally) - Renee Lopez Coaching - FYI it is not available on Amazon. It has some really helpful questions for your student to ask themselves and some questions for coaches. The author runs a really tightly organized parent Facebook group too.
  2. Collegiate Rowing Recruiting: A Handbook For Parents, Athletes, & Coaches by Ryan Sparks https://www.amazon.com/Collegiate-Rowing-Recruiting-Handbook-Athletes-ebook/dp/B0852R293F/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pl_foot_top?ie=UTF8

My kid reached out to colleges at the end of sophomore year if they fit her desired metrics (it was a list of about 40-50) through the recruiting forms and followed up with emails to coaches. She had coach interest quickly so you are right on track for timing.

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