Well, there is a reason all female colleges have survived the test of time. There is known in classroom biases, that may be receding over time but still exist.
Having a lopsided ratio is not that great socially for either gender, IMO. I was at MIT when it was 80% men 20% women. There are not really the dating advantages that people who do not experience that type of lopsided environment believe, but yes, women can get dates. Caltech men may need to go elsewhere to find dates. It may be quite lonely. Very intense and isolating. Caltech has support systems to combat that.
On the experience of women in engineering, Here another opinion, from a male engineering student, about his observations of female students in his classes today.
Even I feel a little incredulous, but read this, An Eastern Washington University male students viewpoint.
MIT has diligently tried to correct biases, over the year, theyhired a lot of female faculty and the undergrad student ratio is about 45% women now. Most US Engineering colleges cannot recruit that many women. Caltech is in the middle, but its more of a science focused college.
I hope you read this @Aimingtop50 and reflect on it. I myself am reflecting on it too. I think that women that get educated and work in all male environments are actually rather sexist about OTHER women after a period of time too.
Caltech had 44% women in the incoming Class of 2020. @Coloradomama I think your Caltech info about severely lopsided ratios is a few years out of date.
I do not think the CS major at Caltech is anywhere near 44% women, but yes the incoming newest undergraduate class is that percent. . The OP was interested in CS.
Look at the faculty at Caltech, its mostly white men in CS but some new hires. It will change over time.
I count two women on the faculty, one brand new. But, It is a very small college though so this is to be expected.
I am not against Caltech in any way, I think
its one of the best universities in the USA for science, CS and math. The field is very dominated by men
and women who want to work with men, may well want to attend Caltech.
I don’t think a field can be sexist. People are sexist. And for certain people in business, law, and medicine have their share of sexism. I think there have been many lawsuits at Duke Medical, Stanford Medical school over sexism over the years. There may be attitudes at some institutions or for certain majors like mathematics that really prevent women from succeeding. However the gender gap in CS in particular, is concerning and written about. Women drop out of CS careers, after good CS educations at the best schools, is the basic story.
There is a one women show about math at MIT, Truth Values that discusses this. It has played across the country at many universities to describe what happens when there are very few women in a field. It also might be deemed “dated” however. This review says girls should not see it but gives you an idea of the history of women and what gender gap means to women who try to study in male dominated fields. I surely hope its dated!
Lawrence Summers famous speech at Harvard over ten years ago now, got this discussion rolling. I think there has been a lot of press about Silicon Valley discrimination cases lately. It is changing, but male dominated fields are lucrative so women will continue to try them! . Its not easy to work with men day in and day out ,be the only women in the room every time, but lots of us do this for our entire careers.
Not to belabor this too much, but this UCLA study outlines the gender gap problem for CS. Page 8 shows the 1971 to 2011 data for CS majors by gender. Note that women tracked men in the 1980s and then dropped off significantly.
More studies of what happened to all those women who studied CS in the 1980s might be enlightening.
I realize there is a large gender gap in CS employment and sexism in some corporate cultures.
Still, I think it is wrong to be telling the OP that Caltech is too tough for her. (Like the Barbie doll that said “Math is hard.” Ick.)
Caltech doesn’t admit unqualified females. They are pretty unbending about their standards for admissions. Likely everyone who goes there is a bit scared by the intense workload. (I know my son is.) So, the OP should know that she wasn’t admitted by mistake. Then she can make her own choice about the culture she wants in a college.
Caltech is very collaborative because of the difficulty and the way the Honor Code is implemented. If we are going to talk about gender stereotypes, I would think that females have a bit of an advantage where collaboration is concerned.
CS is currently a very popular major at Caltech. I’ve read in blogs that it’s actually considered a bit of an easier major because the requirements are more flexible. (Easier compared to say Chemical Engineering, which always seems to be mentioned as one of the hardest majors at Caltech.)
The OP got into Caltech, so its not too tough for her! Its a matter of environment and fit.
See link to discussion of what its like to be female at Caltech. . Caltech is a more intense math school for a student who says she wants an MBA later. but it might be a fit for her, I don’t know her. Also the overall focus is not business interested computer scientists as she would find at CMU, Northwestern, and maybe Brown, its science, and math, with a narrow set of engineering majors, and her classmates will often pursue a PhD after Caltech.
Caltech offers a science core thats required for CS and all majors. She will not have to study a science core at her other choices.
( core includes physics, chemistry, biology, math two lab classes)
I am not recommending one over the other as I don’t know the OP. Just giving information about what I see the differences in her choices. Caltech students have some of the highest math scores in the country, although CMU SCS is not really that far behind for math scores. But CMU has a wider set of students to meet on campus, and a business college. Ditto on Northwestern, with a world class school of music and journalism. Brown, strong humanities fine arts and social sciences.