two or three top schools for rowing

Question
I am in the process of becoming a private college counselor through UCLA extension. One of my case studies is to help a student create an appropriate college list. The student I have picked has had an impressive rowing career in high school. Could you name two or three schools where rowing is highly prized and competitive? Thanks, Dan

Answer
Hi Dan: Intersting question.  Crew rowing is an interesting sport because there are excellent programs nationwide.  Of course, the first two colleges that come to mind are the ones that have been doing it the longest: Harvard and Yale.  However, all of the Ivy League crews have very competitive programs.  Other Northeast scuools with a good reputation are Northeastern, Syracuse and the Naval Academy.  The city of Philadelphia has several good programs like the U. of Pennsylvania; other Philly schools compete in what is known as the Dad Vail circuit which is kind of like a second-level division, but are very fast crews.  These include Temple and Saint Joseph's.  The South does not have too many great programs, but most of the schools do have crew teams.  In the Midwest, Wisconsin and Purdue have top-caliber programs.  In your neck of the woods, the West Coast, the premiere schools are Washington, Stanford, Cal Berkely, USC and your own UCLA.  

One note of interest: Mike Teti, who coached the U.S. Olympic Crew to gold in the 2004 games, is the new coach at Cal. He was my coach some 28 years ago.

Hope that helps/AP