College Rowing Recruitment: Erg Times & Admissions

Question
Mr. Pepper,
I recently asked you about rowing in college and I have a few more questions for you. I do have on the water rowing experience and I am wondering what erg time a lightweight coach at an Ivy league or competitive school like MIT need to see in order to consider recruiting a rower, not for a scholarship but for additional pull in the admissions office. Thank you.

Answer
Hi Again, Ben: To be honest, your typical admissions officer is not going to be able to discern a good erg time from a mediocre one.  What they will look at is that you competed in crew and thus was in an extra-curricular activity.  Couple that with your SAT scores and your straight A's and you are going to be in the "highly-selectable" category. The one other thing you want to show in your application is that you have volunteered in some community organization (for example, my son spent 8 hours a week over the summer volunteering at a hospital).

To answer your question specifically, I think a time of 6:50 or better is a competitive time to make a Varsity Lightweight crew in a Eastern Sprints-level program.  A time of 6:40 or better is probably what you need to make varsity at an elite program like Harvard and Yale.

Good Luck/AP