<p>I'm referring to all selective school, not necessarily Harvard, but not excluding it either.</p>
<p>I think it will depend on the % of males vs. females at the school. If they are looking for more males, males get the break....and vice versa.</p>
<p>So at somewhere like MIT, (assuming a very strong application) being female could be somewhat of a "hook?"</p>
<p>MIT is 42% female, so I wouldn't think being female would be a "hook"....but it might be a tipping factor if you're neck in neck with a male applicant.</p>
<p>This is somewhat off topic, but does anybody know where (or if) I can find acceptance rates by gender? For example, MIT is 42% female, but this doesn't mean that females are accepted at the same rate as males. Maybe less females apply to MIT and so are accepted at a slightly higher rate to achieve a gender balance?</p>
<p>emswim,
the online version of the usnwr best colleges listing gives this - you do need to drill down to the Admissions page for the individual college, though.</p>
<p>For MIT, the 2003 figures listed are:</p>
<p>Male applicants: 7,651
Male acceptances: 885
Male freshman enrollment: 560 </p>
<p>Female applicants: 2,898
Female acceptances: 850
Female freshman enrollment: 459 </p>
<p>As you can see, big bump for the XX's.</p>
<p>Wow! The girls get in at a rate almost 3 times higher than that for boys. Do you think the female applicant pool is stronger, or are girls getting affirmative action? Thanks for the numbers and info on how to find more!</p>
<p>
[quote]
emswim------ So are girls cut a tiny bit more slack with test scores? Or will an extremely high score help a girl more than it will help a boy?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>See below......they are more rare for girls. How much it "helps" will depend on a lot of other factors.</p>
<p>
[quote]
aparent5 ----....It's quite possible that a lot of female students in the class of 2004 had their act together and took it earlier, or that boys tend to be late bloomers; we just don't know how big the difference is between males and females without more data.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The facts from College Board. </p>
<p>The third fourth and fifth tables here (look under SAT Reasoning Test test performance give you last year's data. They are about the same as the year before. They have them for combined scores, and also for verbal and math separated. The one thing that is a tiny difference is that in 2004, for I believe the first time, girls scored more 800s in verbal than did boys. However, for all the rest of the score points down to 670(except at 720), there were more boys than girls. Note that, to begin with, there are 15% more female test takers than male. </p>
<p>Obviously, the data are interpreted by various people to mean different things. However, this is the source, and female high scorers are more rare than male. Most of the gap is math, but men do better in verbal too.</p>
<p>"The SAT Program defines a college-bound senior as a student who is graduating in the current year and took an SAT Program test any time during high school. "</p>
<p>Do you think a girl with good but not great (by top 25 standards) math score will be cut more slack than boys? For example, a 700 math would be low for a non-athlete, non-URM at highly ranked schools. Would a girl with this score (about what I'm expecting) be cut some slack compared to a boy? Especially if it is combined with high verbal scores?</p>
<p>emswim, girls with higher verbal than math scores are the norm at most top 25 schools. What kind of slack are you talking about? If the applicant is a strong candidate across several dimensions and the math score is a tad low.... well, that will be a consideration among several. If the applicant isn't distinctive in any way, the fact that verbal is higher than math won't matter too much... even a slightly higher math score isn't going to get you in.</p>
<p>Also, at most colleges except the tech schools like MIT and CalTech, males are favored because fewer males than females now are going to college. This particularly is true when it comes to applicants at LACs.</p>
<p>I'm only talking about the math score not ruining the application. Otherwise, I have strong EC's: intense competitive swimming, community service, research experience, several academic awards (ironically in math), high grades (3.9 UW) with all 7 APs so far. With good essays and recs, I think my application will be competitive. Not a legacy, URM, or recruited athlete, though. I just don't want them to throw out my application based on one thing.</p>
<p>Your question is too specific to answer accurately, but consider that there were 66,000 girls with higher math scores last year. For the super highly ranked schools, at that math score level, your admission isn't a function of whether you have a 700, 730, or 690(although they don't like 600 range scores)....it will depend on something else distinguishing you to the admissions people. Good luck</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, dadx; I forward it as moral support to d, who is studying for a very daunting final. :eek:</p>
<p>Actually, my 66,000 number above is wrong. Thats total m+f. Females above 700M is about 26,000. Sorry.</p>
<p>"The Social Security office told us the government considers the child the race of the mother."</p>
<p>I doubt that this "rule" applies in the case of the offspring of a union between a white female and a black male. Historically, the "one drop" rule supercedes all others...</p>
<br>
<p>I doubt that this "rule" applies in the case of the offspring of a union between a white female and a black male. Historically, the "one drop" rule supercedes all others...</p>
<br>
<p>True, and furthermore there's no such thing as "government" policy when it comes to race; different governmental entities will have different rules, and the same entity may have different rules for different situations (i.e. who's black for school-busing purposes may be different from who's black for the drawing of legislative districts, etc.).</p>
<p>emswim -
"I'm only talking about the math score not ruining the application. "</p>
<p>This depends on the math score and the institution, of course. But for most places - even MIT - one score won't kill you. If you are not so hot at SAT I math - do what my son did - take the math IIC. It requires more knowledge, but isn't so tricky. This may not work everywhere, but it a way of showing competancy.</p>
<p>ohio_mom-
"This depends on the math score and the institution, of course."</p>
<p>So would a 700 be bad enough to kill someone's chances at Rice or Stanford? I will definitely take SATs again. I don't even have my scores back yet. I'm just estimating a 700 based on my 69 PSAT and how I feel about the test. I'm already signed up for the IIC in June.</p>
<p>Emswim, you gotta ask yourself a question more profound than getting a 700 on the SAT in math.... would you really want to be in a program as rigorously math based as MIT if you don't love and breathe math? Look at the required core classes.... required of everyone, even if you major in music or urban planning. </p>
<p>If this isn't how you want to spend your college career, don't spend your time fretting about your SAT scores... spend it exploring other schools which will focus on your interests.</p>