<p>I know this has been brought up here before, but I want to ask about the social situation at Vassar as pertain to the boy girl ratio. Many liberal arts schools are a little tilted (45%/55%) but Vassar seems to be different with 40/60 and and (for me) an eyebrow raising difference in the acceptance rate - 17% for women and 33% for men (google: collegedata vassar admissions). This is likely because it used to be all-women and is having a hard time getting balanced.</p>
<p>My question is - does this really not affect the social environment? I went to college in the 80's at a school that was 65% men and 35% woman, and we guys didn't like the ratio one bit. It seemed to make the women feel more privileged and the men more insecure. I really like Vassar, but I don't want to put my D in a similar situation. Do I now have to worry about this?</p>
<p>As a guy, I don’t think I’ll mind at all, but I can see how it would be an issue for girls. On the other hand, most of what I’ve read has said the ratio isn’t actually too noticeable.</p>
<p>I too, experienced the “joys” of going to a college which was 2/3 men.<br>
So I think it is indeed a concern with respect to your daughter’s situation.</p>
<p>First, it is my understanding that a higher than normal percentage of the boys at Vassar are gay. So the ratio may even be worse than at first appears.</p>
<p>Second, I recently read an article in The New York Times about the University of North Carolina, and how it had something like a 40/60 boy/girl ratio, and how this impacted on the girls. You should read that article. It was not a nice story. Many of the girls wound up dating older guys in the Chapel Hill area who were not college students, because there were few boys to date. So they missed out on the traditional college experience in that regard. And as for the college boys, the gist of the story was that since the boys knew they were in the drivers seat, there was little dating. The girls would complain about no romance on the part of the boys, and how aggressive they were. For example, a boy would take a girl out for a slice of pizza, and then kind of take the attitude, after five minutes-----“well, I just bought you a slice of pizza, that’s more than most guys around here do, so what else do I have to do, time to sleep with me”. The fact that the subject actually made it into The New York Times as a prominent story shows that your fears are not ill-founded. </p>
<p>Of course, if your daughter is extremely attractive, she should still not have a problem, but if she is just average, she well might.</p>
<p>“Of course, if your daughter is extremely attractive, she should still not have a problem, but if she is just average, she well might.”</p>
<p>Well, that’s most certainly the last thing I would’ve hoped to get as a response if I’d posted the question, especially if I hadn’t specifically addressed the issue of dating.</p>
<p>To teddead123, maybe you should just ask your D if she thinks she’d have any problems with it, visit the campus if you can. I certainly don’t think it’s that big a deal.</p>
<p>A minor point, the ratio is 43/57 percent. Brown and Wesleyan are cross-admit colleges. Their ratios are 48/52 and 45/55 percent respectively. Visit the campuses and see if you notice a perceptible difference.</p>
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<p>That’s a small part of the reason. Another reason contributing to the lower percentage of males is Vassar doesn’t have a football or hockey team, eliminating a significant number of male athletes who would otherwise be recruited and enrolled. Also, lack of the aforementioned sports will winnow out a percentage of the male population who will consider or apply to Vassar, because they desire a more conventional (sports orientated) LAC experience, such as at Midd, Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, et cetera.</p>
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<p>Yeah, well, as far as I know, there’s never been a survey to ascertain the percentage of men (or women for that matter) enrolled at Vassar who are gay.
Speaking of urban legends, Yale is known as the “Gay Ivy”… although there aren’t any statistics substantiating Yale has a larger percentage of gay males than the other Ivies.</p>
<p>I believe that the freshman class is 55%F/45%M. As far as the number of gay males – my son informs me that there are a lot of gay students of <em>both</em> sexes.</p>
<p>Yes but, those guidebook stats are based on individual entering classes, usually the last one at publication date. For example, the 45/55 male:female ratio given for Wesleyan is specifically for the Class of 2014. The College Navigator figure I quoted at post#8 is for the university as a whole and is based on Wesleyan’s IPEDS figures - which are themselves a cumulative total of Wesleyan’s yearly common data sets.</p>
<p>Yes, of course, I assumed it was understood that that was the class being discussed…e.g. post #7
I’m much more interested in the current statistics (SAT/ACT, top 10 percent of class, gpa if available, acceptance rate-male v female) as they most closely represent the statistics that will be beneficial and pertinent to future students. </p>
<p>The Common Data Set isn’t a guidebook. But, yes, the guidebooks mine their data from the CDS. </p>
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<p>Good point. I should have acknowledged that fact…apples and oranges mistake.</p>
<p>This issue is getting way overblown. Vassar is a school with about 2,500 very diverse students. Yes, it is very welcoming of LGBT students (a good thing!), but there are tons of “straight” kids of both genders as well. To be clear, lots of straight men choose to attend Vassar for all the obvious reasons – it is an exceptionally good school as measured across any number of criteria. As posters above have indicated, the statistical differences in the number of men and women at the school is not a big deal compared to peer institutions unless you are a statistician perhaps. Many liberal arts colleges have somewhat fewer men than women. The difference between 43% or 45% or 47% or whatever is hardly worth debating. I think the issue would become much more real if one were considering a school like Cal Tech or one over the service academies as an alternative, where the ratios are more unbalanced.</p>
<p>teddad – a couple of basic questions (sorry if you’ve already relayed this) – is your D a high school senior who has been accepted to Vassar and other schools and is now choosing where to go? Or did she apply early and this is where she’s going? Also – has she been in any relationships yet? I think if she has already had some experience being in a relationship she will be better able to navigate a slightly skewed male/female balance, but if she is thinking it’ll be easy to meet men and date in college, then the imbalance is something you should discuss. If she is committed to going to Vassar, perhaps discuss ways she could counter that (junior year abroad?)</p>
<p>The input of Vassar students might be helpful for this topic:</p>
<p>“In the 2010 Senior Survey, fewer than 10 percent of female Vassar students reported being Somewhat or Very Satisfied with the gender ratio on campus, while a little over 40 percent of male students say they are Somewhat or Very Satisfied with the gender ratio. Davis-Van Atta stated he had never seen such a difference in opinion between male and female students on any other issue, at any school.”</p>
<p>I sense an undercurrent of something that feels kind of ugly but is hard for me to name when this subject comes up…something like “why would men want to go to what was a women’s college”, “they must be gay”, “the women must be unhappy”…something.</p>
<p>Just an observation.
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Full disclosure: I attended Vassar in the 80’s but transferred, not because of any gender issues (I thought that was just fine - many men from my HS went to Vassar), but because I wanted to be back in NYC.*</p>
<p>As a “straight” female Vassar student, I’ll offer my insight:</p>
<p>-Like most things at Vassar, you really only feel the gender imbalance if you’re looking for it. There is an all-female residential hall on campus – Strong – and no all-male dorm. This leaves the other living spaces about equal or male-heavy. If a girl wants to have many male friends there is absolutely no problem in achieving that. If she wants a predominantly female experience, she can have that just as easily.
-Yes, many Vassar boys are gay. But many Vassar girls are also gay. It’s awesome to go to a school where almost everyone is open about their sexuality. Unlike in other environments, no one will date you to cover up their sexuality.
-In response to floridadad55’s example from the University of North Carolina (For example, a boy would take a girl out for a slice of pizza, and then kind of take the attitude, after five minutes-----“well, I just bought you a slice of pizza, that’s more than most guys around here do, so what else do I have to do, time to sleep with me”.) that is very much not the attitude at Vassar. There will be the occasional jerk, but Vassar students are well aware that such behavior is not acceptable and that no circumstance leaves a woman OWING anyone sex. I don’t see Vassar boys as feeling entitled because of the gender-ratio.
-The hook-up scene is big at Vassar. This is the only real impediment to having a relationship or dating. However, my friends at other schools seem to be no better off than I am, despite their more balanced gender-ratios and more heteronormative campuses. This problem is generation-wide.
-If people put themselves out there, make new friends instead of only associating with the same few people all the time, and wait till they meet the “right” person, they can have a relationship at Vassar. If they don’t, they may still have a relationship!</p>
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