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Gender Ratios are so lop-sided? What is going on?
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Anonymous
| We had back to school night for our DS, and for all the high rigor classes girls outnumber boys 2-1 at least. I don’t know exactly why this is the case, but a quick look at any advanced classroom confirms it. |
Anonymous
This is not unique to Tulane, or to the small number of schools named on this thread. My oldest DS is a college senior and when he was applying I downloaded applications/acceptances/enrollment stats from the Common Data Sets of about 75 schools. The vast majority had significantly more women applicants and their accepted and enrolled numbers maintained the same proportions (60/40 in many cases, even worse for some.) There were a few exceptions; my kid was mostly interested in smaller schools but of the data I gathered, I remember that UMD was much more evenly proportioned. He is now at a LAC with an even gender balance and he has a great group of both male and female friends. |
Anonymous
| From an individual perspective, this seems to be a matter of suitable college search and selection. |
Anonymous
Because people like Charlie Kirk and similar podcast bros have been hoodwinking them into thinking college is a scam, etc. |
Anonymous
This has been going on for years. Are you really just learning about it now? |
Anonymous
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This is nothing new. Once you get beyond T20 I think it is pretty common.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/magazine/men-college-enrollment.html |
Anonymous
Northern-tier colleges, such as Dartmouth, Colby and Hamilton, tend to accept female and male applicants at similar rates and tend to enroll relatively gender-balanced classes, should colleges of this type be of interest to your daughter. |
Anonymous
Agree Tulane isn’t unique, but it seems extreme compared to its peer universities, I think. |
Anonymous
Is the “school is for girls” attitude more prevalent in the South? |
Anonymous
The gender imbalance pre-dates them. |
Anonymous
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Merit
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Anonymous
The gender ratio issue was a big reason why I hoped my DD would have the opportunity to attend a T20. I would have rather she go to an all women's school than a place with a highly skewed ratio. Being so rare and prized doesn't seem to make the young men any more attractive as potential dates (or male friends, for that matter). |
Anonymous
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I have two boys at top 20 universities. White. Middle class. One chose to do ROTC, so that's a definite hook for the elite schools. He has a four year scholarship and also received a Congressional Nomination for West Point when he was considering pursuing that option. The other is completely unhooked, but gets very generous financial aid and studies engineering. Both of them were very strong high school students. Both of them were also very strong athletes and got D3 offers for their sports, though neither pursued those scholarship opportunities because the schools weren't right for them. They go to D1 schools today. Both were also student leaders, "presidents" of various things. Both are very social and outgoing. They have always been very kind and very motivated.
I have absolutely no idea why they are succeeding and other boys aren't. They went to very competitive public high schools with all the AP and EC opportunities. Wealthy area. But over the years, their boy peers seemed to drop for one reason or another. Mental illness, drugs, shitty parents - but girls deal with those issues too, so that's not it. As an observer, I will say the boys dealt with a lot of anti-boy BS throughout elementary, middle, and high school. In public schools, all the attention is on girls and POC. There is an undercurrent in public schools that white boys are the enemy. And we are talking about 12 and 13 year old boys. They are internalizing this. And as we learned, there is a whole online ecosystem that is there to exploit the hurt and ramp it up into resentment. If you ever hear the words "Andrew Tate" or "Beta" or "Charlie Kirk" or any number of words from a middle schooler, it's time to have real discussions with boys about what that means. Treat them like intelligent human beings. Parents need to be a source of common sense and decency. While acknowledging some of the things they hear in school are totally worth an eye roll. Reading this thread, I see that some are saying white boys are scared of competition from girls and people of color. That's not it at all, certainly not with my boys. But white boys are being told they are the enemy over and over again. And it takes some gumption and a good upbringing for a 12 year old boy to resist the internet rabbit hole that is just waiting for these boys who are often being defined as bad for things they can do nothing about. I know - every black person or older woman is saying welcome to our world. But as we all know, that demonization has impacts for years. And some teenagers whither under pre-conceived notions - white boys included. It takes parental effort to counter the crap and get boys to feel comfortable in their bones and feel confident as individuals. Both of my boys have serious girlfriends. My thinking is way too early. But I can see why girls at the top schools are locking things down early. |
Anonymous
are the applicant pools gender balanced? |
Anonymous
Is your dd going for her mrs or wants a degree? |