Gender Divide?

[Anonymous]

Is our high school the only one with a huge disparity in gender among acceptances so far this fall? More than 15 unhooked boys into Top 20s and only three girls. Just wondering if it’s a trend this year, every year, or just a coincidence that our girls aren’t doing as well (and yes, I have a daughter but she didn’t apply early so it’s not a personal gripe - just a female one!)

[Anonymous]

Seeing the same- unhooked boys are doing well at our school.

[Anonymous]

In our school it has almost always been the top girls that go to the best schools so I am not seeing this at all. I guess we will have to wait to see what this year brings in the end.

[Anonymous]

It is definitely 50/50 at the T25 elites at our school.

[Anonymous]

They’re trying to get more boys in college. There is quite a big social media push to discredit colleges to boys.

[Anonymous]

Every year, the system moves further and further away from anything fair and merit-based in favor of population manipulation

[Anonymous]

Guys have finally learned to play “hard to get.”

[Anonymous]

I’m hearing the same thing at co-ed HSs near me, which is a bit wild because we also saw it with HS admissions coming out of our private, co-Ed k-8. DD is at a girls’ school so at least we don’t have to experience it personally this time.

[Anonymous]

Why is this a surprise? Schools would like a gender balance, there are more qualified applicants than seats and top schools can afford to have a slightly easier acceptance rate for males and still get top students.

There are more women applying to almost every top program.

I am a mother of daughters and my oldest is at a school that is 60% female. I think a gender balance is important for college if at all possible.

[Anonymous]

It’s am every year thing at the schools that try for gender balance. Just look at the cds for top schools and you can see how many more girls apply than boys.

[Anonymous]

On average, girls have often much higher GPAs, and only slightly lower scores, than boys. The more GPA is weighed compared to scores, the more competitive admission will be for girls at top schools. This has been especially the case in the wake of test optional policies, when GPA became even more important than it already was and scores were an afterthought. It will be interesting to see whether the gender acceptance rates change at schools where tests are required, though there doesn't seem to be data on gender and applying test optional.

[Anonymous]

Kids at are our school are generally unhooked outside of being full pay and the last three years, the Ivy attendees have been typically around 60-70% boys.

[Anonymous]

This pattern has been going on for a long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this a surprise? Schools would like a gender balance, there are more qualified applicants than seats and top schools can afford to have a slightly easier acceptance rate for males and still get top students.

There are more women applying to almost every top program.

I am a mother of daughters and my oldest is at a school that is 60% female. I think a gender balance is important for college if at all possible.

Because if this were happening to any other demographic, we’d be kicking out feet about how unfair a practice it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this a surprise? Schools would like a gender balance, there are more qualified applicants than seats and top schools can afford to have a slightly easier acceptance rate for males and still get top students.

There are more women applying to almost every top program.

I am a mother of daughters and my oldest is at a school that is 60% female. I think a gender balance is important for college if at all possible.

I’m the OP and I guess it’s just a surprise to me because it’s my first time with a senior. I think it’s also harder to see one student succeed over another objectively less qualified applicant when you know the kids personally. You really do learn something new everyday in this process.