From Erg to Admissions: Where to Begin the College Rowing Recruitment Process

Maria Laskaris

Senior Private Counselor, Top Tier Admissions

Maria Laskaris brings more than three decades of experience in highly selective college admissions, including 25 years at Dartmouth College — eight of which she served as Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid. In that role, she led undergraduate admissions and financial aid strategy and oversaw the evaluation of thousands of applicants annually, giving her an unparalleled understanding of how selective universities build their classes. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the Common Application, helping shape policies that affect millions of applicants each year. Since joining Top Tier Admissions, she has applied that insider expertise to guiding students and families through an increasingly complex admissions landscape.

Maria works with students across a wide range of academic interests — from STEM and the social sciences to the humanities and creative fields — and is particularly well suited to those applying to highly selective universities. She also has extensive experience advising student-athletes pursuing recruitment, students on arts pathways, international applicants, transfer students, and those navigating boarding school admissions. Families consistently value her calm, clear-eyed perspective and her ability to cut through the noise and focus students on what truly matters. Her goal is to help every student build an application that is both strategically strong and authentically their own.

Ryan Sparks

Founder, Sparks

Ryan Sparks is a former Ivy League rowing recruiter and the author of two books on collegiate rowing recruiting. He founded Sparks in 2010 and runs its rowing camps and college counseling.

Ryan remains forever fascinated by the intersection between culture and human potential. After a painful initial undergraduate, he followed his passion for rowing to New Zealand before transferring to finish his degree at Bates College. The experience created a fascination with the connection between culture and performance for him. He went on to study cross-cultural communication and coach with the national team and at Yale prior to starting his business.

He spent his initial post-graduate years coaching in Canada, New Zealand and Germany – then as a collegiate coach at Bates, Wesleyan, and Yale Universities.

Ryan started Sparks as a college counseling firm for rowers after considering the impact of culture on athletes' development. Observation of culture led him to the opportunity to build culture in sport camps. He saw an ability to address needs while combining his interests camps led to further study in experiential design.

Sparks now runs camps on four continents for hundreds of athletes each year.

In addition to two books on collegiate rowing recruitment, Ryan has authored an article called What College Rowing Coaches Actually Look for Beyond the Erg Score.

In his spare time he enjoys dogs, running, books on teamwork, and forever learning as a private pilot.