Swimming & Diving at the Top Colleges

Swimming & Diving is among the most popular of the NCAA sports at the highly selective colleges for both men and women. Overall, 52 of the 61 highly selective colleges have men’s swimming & diving teams and 59 of the 61 highly selective colleges that have women’s swimming & diving teams, with a total of 3,356 swimmers across all the colleges.

Of the 52 colleges with men’s swimming & diving teams, 24 of them belong in Division 1 with 748 swimmers and 28 of them belong in Division 3 with 852 swimmers, totaling 1,600 swimmers together in the 2021/2022 season.

Of the 58 colleges with women’s swimming & diving teams, 30 of them belong in Division 1 with 876 swimmers and 29 of them belong in Division 3 with 880 swimmers, totaling 1,756 swimmers together in the 2021/2022 season.

Men’s Swimming and Diving NCAA Rules and Calendar for Athlete Recruitment

Women’s Swimming and Diving NCAA Rules and Calendar for Athlete Recruitment

How do top colleges in Division 1 select their athlete recruits?

Athlete Recruitment to a Top NCAA Division 3 College

List of Highly Selective Colleges with Swimming and Diving Teams

Below is a list of the top colleges with swimming & diving teams and the NCAA Division they belong in.

All data is compiled directly from the colleges’ athletic websites

Swimming & Diving at Highly Selective Colleges
Men's Women's
DivisionSwimmingSwimming
Amherst CollegeIIIYesYes
Babson CollegeIIIYesYes
Barnard College (comb w/ Columbia University)I No Yes
Bates CollegeIIIYesYes
Boston CollegeIYesYes
Boston UniversityIYesYes
Bowdoin CollegeIIIYesYes
Brown UniversityIYesYes
California Institute of Technology IIIYesYes
Carleton CollegeIIIYesYes
Carnegie Mellon University IIIYesYes
Claremont McKenna College (incl Harvey Mudd)IIIYesYes
Colby College IIIYesYes
Colgate University IYesYes
Colorado CollegeIIIYesYes
Columbia University (incl Barnard College)IYesYes
Cornell UniversityIYesYes
Dartmouth CollegeIYesYes
Davidson CollegeIYesYes
Duke UniversityIYesYes
Emory UniversityIIIYesYes
Georgetown University IYesYes
Georgia Institute of TechnologyIYesYes
Grinnell College IIIYesYes
Hamilton CollegeIIIYesYes
Harvard UniversityIYesYes
Harvey Mudd College (comb w/Claremont McKenna)IIIYesYes
John Hopkins University IIIYesYes
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyIIIYesYes
Middleburry CollegeIIIYesYes
Northeastern UniversityINoYes
Northwestern University IYesYes
New York UniversityIIIYesYes
Pitzer College IIIYesYes
Pomona College IIIYesYes
Princeton University IYesYes
Rice University INoYes
Stanford University IYesYes
Swarthmore College IIIYesYes
Tufts University IIIYesYes
Tulane University INoYes
University of California BerkeleyIYesYes
University of California Los AngelesINoYes
University of Michigan IYesYes
University of Chicago IIIYesYes
University of North Carolina - Chapel HillI YesYes
University of Notre Dame IYesYes
University of Pennsylvania IYesYes
University of Southern California IYesYes
University of Virginia IYesYes
Vanderbilt University INoYes
Vassar College IIIYesYes
Villanova UniversityIYesYes
Washington and Lee University IIIYesYes
Washington University in St. LouisIIIYesYes
Wellesley College IIINoYes
Wesleyan UniversityIIIYesYes
Williams CollegeIIIYesYes
Yale University IYesYes
Total Swimmers1,6001,756

Watch out for the latest on

  • How to get recruited to the swimming & diving team at a top college?

  • Swimming & diving team profiles at the top colleges


Alex Irvine

Alex Irvine is a Product Development Associate and author for X Factor Admissions. He is a current UCLA junior who is majoring in history and has extensive personal experience in the college admissions process.

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