RowCollege

Construction on Campus, What Might It Mean?

You're on a campus tour, and suddenly you have to stop and wait as a bulldozer goes by. Five minutes later you are hopping over mud puddles and weaving through chain-link fence. Cement mixers surround your car in the parking lot and workers with hard hats are everywhere.

Your tour guide is not fazed at all. In fact, she is smiling.

What does she know that you don't?

                                                Sites like this on a campus tour—good or bad?

What It Might Mean

One reason your tour guide might be happy walking through mud and dodging heavy equipment is that at the other end of all that work and inconvience might stand a new science building, or gym, or academic building, or who knows what.

What all the mess could very well mean is that there is a positive future on the campus, and people who are planning, and spending money to make it a better place.

The mess can be a big hassle. But wouldn't you rather go to a school that is building to improve?

Isn't that why you go to college?

The mess above may turn into this.

Gather Great Insight About a College in Three Easy Visits.

Often it can be difficult to filter out the information you really want about a potential college or rowing team. Flashy brochures, smooth recruiting pitches, DVDs, and open houses can all give solid info. But is it what you really want to know?

Key, critical information, such as cost, class size, location, majors, etc. is certainly easy to find. But what about the information that will make a huge difference to you over a four year period. I'm referring to such items as:

• Quality of campus food: certainly of major interest to any rower
• Attitude of faculty and general student body towards athletes: are they supported, ignored, hated?
• Relationship of coach or coaches to the athletes: are the coach and athletes on the same page, working well together?
• Chemistry of the team: how well does the team function as a team
• Dorm life: lively? lovely? awful?
• Leadership on campus: respected or despised
• Work ethics of students

How do you get this info?

I often recommend to our recruits the following plan. It entails three visits, [This plan may not work if distance or time are issues.]

Visit #1: General Campus Visit.
A tour, interview, and meeting with a coach can tell you a lot, and quickly. The focus is to get an overview and feeling for the school. Ask questions and listen. Really listen. This visit can certainly happen during the summer, when many campus visits do occur.

One tip, on your way home, a few minutes after you leave campus, listen to your gut instinct about whether you want to find out more about the school, or whether you should pass, and look other places.

Visit #2: An overnight stay.
Stay in a dorm, eat campus food, go to a class, sit in the library, talk to athletes and students, see a practice, go to the boathouse.



Strive to really get a feeling about what goes on on the campus. You are looking for important items, that usually aren’t in the brochures. Again ask questions, and take notes—not just in class, but whenever something good, or bad, gets your attention.

Visit #3: Off campus.
Go to a regatta and watch the team. Step back and try to view all you can about the group. See if you can gather insight into such things as:

• How the team interacts with each other
• Organization
• Supporters
• Results
• Team reputation
• Team performance

This three visit plan certainly won’t work for everyone, but for many it does yield valuable information about an important part of their future life.

If You’ve Never Rowed Before, Should You Walk-On?

Never rowed a stroke in your life and wondering if college rowing is a wise choice for you?

That can be a tricky question to answer.

A huge number of college rowers have never rowed before they came to college. They are called “walk-ons” and college rowing programs are filled to them. [One estimate is that up to 85% of college rowers are walk-ons.]

Walk-ons come out for rowing for many different reasons. Over the years here are the most common reasons our walk-ons have told us they try out:

• Coach asked them to
• It seems like an appealing activity
• Everyone in their dorm floor is trying it
• They want to make friends and socialize
• They want to get in shape
• It looks like fun

There certainly are other reasons, however, I have found that the last one, “having fun” is the most common one.

So, what should you do if you think you might like to become a walk-on for a college team?

First, I would start with the coach. Contact him/her and ask a few simple questions, such as:

1. Do you take walk-ons, with no experience
2. Do you have a novice program (a program specifically designed for rowers with no experience)
3. Is it a club or varsity sport
4. Is there a call-out meeting (orientation meeting), and
5. Is there anything that you should do before that meeting (forms, etc.)

Important . . . keep them simple questions. The temptation may be to ask coach about practice times, schedules, workouts, and so forth. You certainly can, but I suggest you wait for the meeting as many things change.

Second, I would talk to one or more athletes on the team. Are they nice?, welcoming?, supportive? Are they people who you would like to associate with? Your answers to these make quite a difference.

Third, have a conversation with yourself. Why are you thinking of rowing? Pick your top two reasons (see above list) and keep them fresh in your mind. That way when you begin and if your reasons for rowing are not happening (for example, it is not fun) you know that it might not be the right choice for you.

Part of going to college is taking risks and trying new things. If you have a sense rowing might be right for you, give it a shot. You have very little to loose, and much to possibly gain.