<p>Metalforever - may I differ. If you look at the number of students accepted at MIT from DA, NMH, Milton and the like, verses the number of students from those schools who are qualified and apply, you will see that MIT actually discriminates against admissions from the top NE prep schools. DA, and Milton, year in and year out get two admissions max. Prep school kids have to compete against each other for a limited number of slots.</p>
<p>You're probably right.</p>
<p>Im still not going to forget the way i was treated at the seminar though. Second, I tried to get an interview with an alum about 20 minutes away, who blew me off (Which i also suspect is due to where I go to school.. my school doesnt have a great reputation <em>at all</em>/inner city/ghetto area). Leaves a bad taste in the mouth, you know? I actually had an application for them that I was completing that I totally dropped after this.</p>
<p>I thought maybe that wasnt the place for me.</p>
<p>hey everyone, i think female working in engineering is pretty sexy sometime.</p>
<p>i'm going to be a female freshman in engineering next fall... i knew women were a serious minority in engineering but i never worried about it until i came onto these boards. it still doesn't give me much of a worry but some stories about sexism (in industry, mostly) are somewhat discouraging...</p>
<p>Hi everyone..I am a high school senior from India and have already been selected in a few engineering schools in US. Apart from that I will be giving the competitive examinations( high school Phy,Chem,Math) which are prerequisites for engineering here in India. Many girls over here apply for engineering courses and sit for the exams too..Though the candidates who qualify are few, they seem to have tremendous zeal and interest towards engineering just like the boys. What i seem to have gathered about the US education system is that girls just dont seem interested to pursue Engineering. Am i right? If yes, then why this trend?</p>
<p>nibsflyhigh, good question! As a parent, I am particularly concerned with my daughter not being turned off from math and science, which have always been her two favorite subjects. Now this is just my opinion, but I think that little kids are pretty much even in their abilities. Then somewhere around our "middle school" (ages 10-14), many girls turn away from math and science. I have given it a lot of though and this is my opinion:</p>
<ol>
<li> Few role models for girls (although we are getting more young women teaching these subjects, which is great!)</li>
<li> Interest in math and science becomes "nerdy", which is incongruous with popularity. Girls want to be popular.</li>
<li> Girls become interested in boys, and many girls feel that they need to have cute clothes and make-up to attract boys, rather than brains</li>
<li> Boys often don't like to associate with girls who seem smarter than they are</li>
<li> Middle school girls are viscious with eachother and "fitting in" is pretty important at this age</li>
<li> Male students are often more aggressive in classrooms and competitions, leading to the impression of superiority</li>
<li> Surprisingly, some male teachers seem to have prejudice against cute girls in the areas of math and science (I have seen this, but thankfully it is not too common)</li>
<li> As you may have read on some other threads, women do sometimes have a bit of a career struggle in male-dominated fields such as engineering</li>
</ol>
<p>It has been a shame that girls/women have fallen behind in technical areas. Hopefully, that will continue to change as many great careers are available in math, science and engineering.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What i seem to have gathered about the US education system is that girls just dont seem interested to pursue Engineering. Am i right? If yes, then why this trend?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would guess that what you've heard has been exaggerated. While what lfk725 said is somewhat true, I don't believe it's limited to the U.S. I'm curious as to approximately what percentage of engineering applicants in India are female. I visited one of the IIT campuses last year and the male-female ratio is far more extreme than what one would find in the U.S.</p>
<p>But that is what I said...many girls here try to study engineering...they sit for the competitive examinations but very few of them get through and as a result you saw so few girls in IIT the campus...I think they get carried away in the other things of life (mentoned by IKF725) rather than focusing on the competitive examinations..as you might be knowing that IITJEE is one of the toughest examinations in the world at this level..n if you are not into it for two consecutive years, it is very likely that you will not get through...It requires immense perseverance,sincerity and dedication and so only about 5000 get selected out of nearly 300000 candidates!</p>
<p>How many is many? I just wonder if the male/female ration of those sitting for the exams is much different from the male/female ratio in the United States. </p>
<p>I don't disagree that there are relatively few females compared to males in engineering. What I'm not sure if I agree with is that it's different in India compared to the U.S.</p>
<p>Data of this sort can be found on the ASEE profile database, which is cut by URM, year, major.. The following is a sample from University of Texas.</p>
<p>Mech.</p>
<p>Freshman (f) - Women (w) - 39: Men (M) 163
S - W26:M 148
J - W27: M 198
S - W54: M 264</p>
<p>Total in MEch department: Women 146, Men 773 or 18%</p>
<p>Aero</p>
<p>F - W20: M119
S - W10:M94
J - W15: M83
S - W23: 132</p>
<p>Total in Aero Department: Women 68: Men 328 or 20%</p>
<p>20% women overall is the lower limit of respectability - less than 20% - don't apply.</p>
<p>What is extremely negative is the very high wash-out rate of women in engineering at UT, MUCH higher then men (50% in aero; 40% in MEch). Something is very wrong within the department that so many women vote with their feet. From this data, I would not recommend any women apply to UT.</p>
<p>Note the high senior numbers; about 1/2 of students finish in 4 years; 1/2 need 5 years.</p>
<p>Could I suggest that everyone do the kind of analysis that is listed above before applying to any school? The ASEE data can draw a more accurate picture then blogs or shiny brochures. In business it is call due diligence. It is boring, but key to success. </p>
<p>One of the best papers on women in engineering is "Digits of Pi: Barriers and Enablers for Women in Engineering" by Dr. Sheila Widnall, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its on the MIT website. The beginning is a bit fruity, but keep reading.</p>
<p>"
Metalforever - may I differ. If you look at the number of students accepted at MIT from DA, NMH, Milton and the like, verses the number of students from those schools who are qualified and apply, you will see that MIT actually discriminates against admissions from the top NE prep schools. DA, and Milton, year in and year out get two admissions max. Prep school kids have to compete against each other for a limited number of slots.
"</p>
<p>LOL NMH is NOT a top NE prep school...nice try lumping it there lol...i went to hotchkiss btw</p>
<p>No idea where those places are, besides milton. I went to the presentation at Germantown Academy near philly, but i go to school in shamokin (the whole place is a ghetto.) Its by knoebels amusement park.</p>