Is the boy:girl ratio at the liberal arts colleges a deterrent at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the college counselor at our son's high school, the liberal arts colleges all tend to enroll more women than men. It's just kind of a known thing. I could see some students considering this as a slight deterrent to attending a liberal arts college, depending on how social the student is.

Your counselor is wrong. I just looked, and only one of the top 15 liberal arts colleges on the US News list -- Middlebury -- deviates greater than 52/48. Several are an even 50/50. (Obviously Wellesley doesn't count.) The phenomenon appears to be more pervasive among the second tier and lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s something that gives me pause because it’s a well known that this imbalanced ratio means less dating and more hook-ups.

Yikes. Why do you think that?

Can’t find the article I want, but this one makes similar points: https://money.com/college-gender-ratios-dating-hook-up-culture/?amp=true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to a large state school with 60:40 girls:boys ratio. Ended up with boyfriend who was frankly not at my level and yes it had an impact. That being said, it wasn't a key factor in my college decision and that's an age to make mistakes and learn what you like, not an age to settle down.

JMU skews female (perhaps because of its origins as a teacher's college), and my DS likes it there.

Your son is a dude. This thread is about girls attending predominantly women's colleges.

Duh.

[Anonymous]

60:40 is fine.

[Anonymous]

It's a lure to my son, a deterrent to my daughter. Both are hetero. It's not just the numbers though, at an LAC it's harder for a girl to get in than a guy so the girls are often smarter and more motivated.
That said, the girls often end up with a great group of female friends which in the long run usually means more in life. You'll go through a lot of s.o.'s through your 20s, but it's nice if some friends can last

[Anonymous]

Tons and tons of schools have more female students than male. This is particularly an issue for SLACS but also for many universities - AU, BU, GWU, at least a few of the UC campuses have undergraduate populations at or near 60% female. I'm the parent of boys, btw, and I wanted to steer my kid toward schools that were closer to a 50-50 balance. TBH I was also interested in understanding whether being a male helped with admission - for better or worse, it does not appear that is the case for most schools - there's a lot of consistency in the gender balance of applicants, admits, and enrolled students. In the end, my oldest happened to get into a SLAC via ED that is close to a 50-50 balance.

Fwiw you can find all this info (and more) by looking at the annual Common Data Set and Enrolled Student Profile for each school that your DD is interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:60:40 is fine.

Is it? Generally speaking, there are more OTC gay men attending liberal arts colleges than most other universities. This ratio probably means one straight guy for every two straight women.

[Anonymous]

My Child goes to a women’s college so no concern here.

[Anonymous]

In DCUM world people find their "partners" in grad school.

[Anonymous]

It matters for admission. It is harder for females to get in to the schools where the ratio is more pronounced. Conn College for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:60:40 is fine.

No it's not. It's not healthy or desirable for either gender.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter would prefer to go to a college with more girls than boys.

True, guys are a mixed bag at that age.

[Anonymous]

Any off-the-top examples of decent schools with more of a 50/50 breakdown?

[Anonymous]

Is JMU still way off kilter?

[Anonymous]

Most of the top liberal arts colleges are close to 50/50