<p>How competitive is it to get in to an intramural team (not a varsity team) at Harvard? I’m interested in crew, but I’ve never done it before.</p>
<p>IMs are mostly for fun. However, they are somewhat competitive when it comes to the teams that field few slots. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if your house’s crew team has try outs. They want to win after all and can’t just take folks off the street just because they want to get in a shell.</p>
<p>That being said, if you have the ability, even without the experience, they’ll take you.</p>
<p>Intramurals in general aren’t very competitive. The houses talk a lot of trash, but when it comes down to it, more often then not you find the “we need two more people or we forfeit automatically, please come to the gym for volleyball!” email over the house email list. People are just busy and a lot of times can’t or won’t commit to intramural sports, but when you show up it’s a lot of fun and everyone is very welcoming, even if you’re completely unathletic and uncoordinated like me :)</p>
<p>Crew tends to be a little more competitive and requires early morning practices, but if you want to do it I highly doubt you’d have any problems participating. Intramurals are meant to be open to everyone.</p>