Rowing In Universities

Question
Hey there, I am a highschool sophomore 5'10, 145lbs. My 2k erg score is 6:59 and I currently sit 7 seat in my School's 8. My current average is 87% and I was wondering If I have a chance of going stateside on a scholarship. I'm located in Canada and attend a school with a highly succesful rowing program. Would my best bet to continue rowing lightweight in University and shoot for financial assistance at an Ivy program or bump up to heavy weight, where I would not have one of the faster erg scores. I need to go to a program where I can receive a scholarship as I otherwise could not justify leaving Canada for a much more expensive American education. Thank you very much!

Answer
Hi Jake: Your erg time is extremely good and it is around Top-20% for lightweights your age.  It sounds like your on-water race record is very successful.  You have great potential to be a successful college lightweight rower.

I think you can stay in Canada and row in several very good programs.  U. of Western Ontario and U. of BC always has strong crews.   I wouldn't worry too much about trying to get into an Ivy League school.  The admission standards are so outrageosly high that even being a top rower with better-than-average grades for your school may not be enough for the Ivy's, who even put students with Top-5% grades on their waiting list.  If you want to row stateside, there are several good colleges with competitive crews, like Syracuse, Rutgers, Boston University, Wisconsin, Cal. Berkeley, and U. of Washington that outrace the Ivies from time to time and have far more reasonable admission standards.

If you want to get a scholarship, you will need to write to the coaches of schools you want to apply to.  They will not only be interested with your erg times; they will also want to know whether the boats you raced in had any success in major regattas.

Good Luck/AP