Gender Divide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don't see it with kids for the top schools because they are all 50/50. Even MIT is 50/50.

I see it more at the tiers of 20+...places like Tulane that are 63% female and even many of the flagships that tend to have far more females applying and attending.

They are 50/50 because they accept more male applicants, there are less of them.

Here are some samples from the most recent CDS:

Princeton: 20,100 F applying / 19,500 M applying
Brown: 31,650 F applying / 19,666 m applying
Cornell: 34,172 F / 33,674 M
Dartmouth: 15,325 F / 13,516 M
Harvard: 30,363 F / 26,301 M
MIT: 8,939 F / 16,568 M
Stanford: 26,600 F / 27,133 M
Penn: 32,137 F / 27,128 M

So, seems like a definite advantage for men at Brown and definite advantage at MIT for women. Slight advantage for men at Harvard and Penn

This assumes that the average male and female applicant is approximately equal in qualifications. If female applicants are stronger on average (as evidence suggests they are), the shares by gender don't fully reflect the disparity.

The admitted classes are definitely not 50% female and 50% male for many of these schools. Most of the classes have a higher percentage of females. I don't know if that's true for MIT or for every school on this list, but in general college classes contain a higher percentage of females these days.

So in general, fewer males apply and fewer males are admitted.

Here are the breakdowns of enrolled students:

Brown: 52% F / 48% M
Harvard: 53% F / 47% M
MIT: 49% F / 51% M
Penn: 54% F / 46% M (Penn has 650 (6.5% of the undergraduate population) in the Nursing program which is 88% female)
Princeton: 50% F / 50% M
Cornell: 54.5% F / 45.5% M
Stanford: 50% F / 50% M
Dartmouth: 49% F / 51% M

So based on the number of applications by F/M and student bodies...it would appear Males have an advantage at Brown and Dartmouth and females have an advantage at MIT. The others seem to generally have student populations the reflect the F/M application percentages.

[Anonymous]

From Brown's most recent CDS:

19,666 men applied
31,650 women applied

1,350 men admitted (6.9%)
1,336 women admitted (4.2%)

847 men enrolled
848 women enrolled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Before the ban on consideration of race is admissions, the hardest admit to competitive programs was Asian women, next was white women. Now it is probably just women.

The Wesleyan admit rate is quite skewed.

As a parent of academically competitive young women that thinks the social aspect of college is equally important to the academic aspect, I do not have a problem with this even though my children are disadvantaged because there is more to college than just academics.

Please do not sue, college is hard enough for young people.

18% acceptance rate for men versus 16% acceptance rate for women. Not terrible, though if there was a notable difference in the academic abilities, this practice should terminate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If you have high school daughters the school climate has really changed since you were in high school. My boys go to a high school that is essentially 50/50 male/female. However, in their AP and Honors classes, they are a noticiable minority. However, the very top students in both grades are boys. By a noticeable margin it is the boys who are recognized for the highest GPAs, NMSF, academic awards. So don't assume that those boys are getting an unfair advantabe.

It's both I think. There are more boy outliers in either direction (I think there is a sex-linked chromosome basis for this, and it's the same reason boys are more likely than girls to have SN). There are definitely boys who are exceptional students. But there are many more girls who are high performers, as a group, than the group of high performing boys, so to keep gender ratios roughly equal, boys who are not as high performing get a bump in admissions and more latitude for occasional bad grades, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!)

We’re actually seeing the complete opposite at our private. All T20 ED and EA admits have been female, and many more girls than boys got in to UVA ED. Pretty much opposite of last year.

[Anonymous]

% Scoring 1400-1600:
Male: 8%
Female: 5%

% Scoring 700+ in Math:
Male: 11%
Female: 6%

% Scoring 700+ in Reading:
Male: 7%
Female: 7%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You will experience it when your daughter applies to college. My child is at an all-girls high school and results so far are not great and are lagging behind co-ed peer schools. It's still early but our college advisors are telling parents that it is just very hard to get in as a girl. Also, it is very difficult for a private to get an entire cohort of high achieving girls into competitive colleges. This is just what we are hearing. I don't know how things will turn out.

[Anonymous]

Larla: It's not fair that I need better grades and ECs than boys to be admitted to the same schools.

Also Larla: I refuse to attend any school that's not at least 45% male.

Sorry, Larla.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:% Scoring 1400-1600:
Male: 8%
Female: 5%

% Scoring 700+ in Math:
Male: 11%
Female: 6%

% Scoring 700+ in Reading:
Male: 7%
Female: 7%

Test optional would seem to hurt boys then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:% Scoring 1400-1600:
Male: 8%
Female: 5%

% Scoring 700+ in Math:
Male: 11%
Female: 6%

% Scoring 700+ in Reading:
Male: 7%
Female: 7%

Test optional would seem to hurt boys then.

Naturally

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Larla: It's not fair that I need better grades and ECs than boys to be admitted to the same schools.

Also Larla: I refuse to attend any school that's not at least 45% male.

Sorry, Larla.

Said literally no woman ever. We’re keeping the male population up at these schools because parents are obsessive about their boys having boy friends: read the 100s of posts here about their DS “fitting in” at any college that isn’t 50% male.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don't see it with kids for the top schools because they are all 50/50. Even MIT is 50/50.

I see it more at the tiers of 20+...places like Tulane that are 63% female and even many of the flagships that tend to have far more females applying and attending.

They are 50/50 because they accept more male applicants, there are less of them.

Here are some samples from the most recent CDS:

Princeton: 20,100 F applying / 19,500 M applying
Brown: 31,650 F applying / 19,666 m applying
Cornell: 34,172 F / 33,674 M
Dartmouth: 15,325 F / 13,516 M
Harvard: 30,363 F / 26,301 M
MIT: 8,939 F / 16,568 M
Stanford: 26,600 F / 27,133 M
Penn: 32,137 F / 27,128 M

So, seems like a definite advantage for men at Brown and definite advantage at MIT for women. Slight advantage for men at Harvard and Penn

This assumes that the average male and female applicant is approximately equal in qualifications. If female applicants are stronger on average (as evidence suggests they are), the shares by gender don't fully reflect the disparity.

T20 is top 2% of college students. I'm not sure there are more girls in that 2%, especially in STEM. Maybe by GPA. But at our school it's mostly boys winning the EC math and hacking competitions. Same thing with the competitive robotics team. There are many girls on the team, including "leadership positions", but the "hotshot" programmers who write the winning code are mostly boys.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if it varies by high school.

Our high school admitted 20 women and 5 men to Michigan (in-state).

I was freaked out by this until I realized this was similar to the gender breakdowns of the summa cum laudes and NHS. So women are overperforming at our high school, and they just take the top of the class. Other schools might have a different split.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if it varies by high school.

Our high school admitted 20 women and 5 men to Michigan (in-state).

I was freaked out by this until I realized this was similar to the gender breakdowns of the summa cum laudes and NHS. So women are overperforming at our high school, and they just take the top of the class. Other schools might have a different split.

Would you have been freaked out if it was 2 men and 5 women?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Larla: It's not fair that I need better grades and ECs than boys to be admitted to the same schools.

Also Larla: I refuse to attend any school that's not at least 45% male.

Sorry, Larla.

Said literally no woman ever. We’re keeping the male population up at these schools because parents are obsessive about their boys having boy friends: read the 100s of posts here about their DS “fitting in” at any college that isn’t 50% male.

So your theory is that schools are admitting more (weaker) boys so that they'll be able to continue attracting (weaker) boys? Okaaaaay