By Major: Virginity at Wellesley

College Life
1

<p>I came across this chart while browsing online. The survey reflects Wellesley a few years back but the numbers are quite interesting. Realize that this is an all-women's college and 12.5% of each major was represented.</p>

<p>the chart:

<a href="http://www.ivygateblog.com/Picture-1-720552.png%5B/img%5D"&gt;http://www.ivygateblog.com/Picture-1-720552.png

</a>

[quote]

Percent of students who are virgins by major</p>

<p>Studio Art: 0%
Anthropology: 20
Neuroscience: 25
Art History: 37
Computer Science: 40
Spanish: 43
English: 50
French: 50
Philosophy: 57
History: 62
Economics: 65
Undeclared: 68
Psychology: 70
International Relations: 71
Biology: 72
Political Science: 73
Chemistry/Biochemistry: 83
Mathematics: 83

[/quote]
</p>

2

<p>I don’t know how much I believe that. How many people after about age 20 are really virgins anymore? Almost everyone I know lost it between 17-19, girls and guys. This includes people in every major you could think of, including some of the ones listed up there are in the higher percentages.</p>

3

<p>By only showing 12.5% of the major, it could be showing incorrect information.</p>

4

<p>This has been posted here before, but I don’t recall that the info was specific to Wellesley. I don’t know anything about this study or this site, but here’s an identical graph with an entirely different background story:</p>

<p>[Surprising</a> Study: Percentage Of Students That Are Virgins : EarthFrisk Blog](<a href=“http://www.earthfrisk.com/blog/?p=18]Surprising”>http://www.earthfrisk.com/blog/?p=18)</p>

<p>Thirty seconds on google didn’t yield anything but this and Ivygate.</p>

5

<p>The original data/graph is from Counterpoint, a magazine for Wellesley and MIT. They polled both. But, I only posted the Wellesley data. Source: <a href=“http://counterpoint.mit.edu/~webserver/Documents/archives/Counterpoint_V21_I3_2001_Nov.pdf[/url]”>http://counterpoint.mit.edu/~webserver/Documents/archives/Counterpoint_V21_I3_2001_Nov.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. Warning: some images may be inappropriate within it.</p>

6

<p>hmm, hillary clinton majored in political science… i guess that’s bottom 3, lol.</p>

7

<p>It makes sense. The amount of time spent studying has a positive correlation with the difficulty of the major( which has a upward trend(as one goes down the list)). As one spends more time studying, one has less time for socialization and therefore has less time to date/hookup. Thus leading to less sex or no sex.</p>

8

<p>That doesn’t make sense to me, student14x. Do you think “undeclared”, psychology or international relations are more difficult than neuroscience or computer science? I’m saying this as a humanities student who really likes both psych and int’l relations, but even I am realistic about their relative difficulty.</p>

9

<p>Personally, I was surprised at how high Political Science was. And how low Neuroscience was.</p>

<p>kelseyg, I think it depends on every college. At Wellesley, it might be the case that psychology/international relations are very difficult. I think on a site this was posted on someone was noting the fact that women in computer science is such a rarity—it makes a big difference.</p>

10

<p>@ AUlostchick: Most recent data I recall seeing - about 60% of people lose their v-card while in HS and by the end of freshman year (for those that go to college) about 75% of people have had sex. By the age of 21, I think I recall seeing that close to 90% of people are no longer virgins.</p>

<p>The breakdown by major is interesting, though the numbers on the high end seem really high. </p>

<p>I can definitely tell you though that where you go to school makes a difference. A girl I worked with as a camp counselor one summer was going to an engineering school where the girl to guy ratio was 1:7 and even though she wasn’t that attractive, she thought she was hot **** because she had all these guys after her. It was actually kind of funny to watch her return phone calls to these guys over the course of the summer, because it was exactly what you would have expected from some completely superficial, ditzy, hot girl, not this rather demure, plain jane (she never work makeup) of a girl.</p>

11

<p>I should tell my friend there’s hope for her…</p>

12

<p>Lol, I have the urge one day to make up a bunch of statistics and throw them out here on CC to see what people would make of them, how’d they interpret everything.</p>

<p>I really think that this is quite random. And also, define losing virginity? The problem is that each person has their own definition of it…just read Seventeen, you’ll understand.</p>

13

<p>I understand, catsushi. I think it means the actual act in this survey.</p>

<p>Quite random. But, I felt the urge to call a friend to tell about studio art and her favorite major.</p>

14

<p>I believe the survey is being revived, so there should be more up to date results soon.</p>

15

<p>Thank you FemmeFetale! By chance, do you know …how soon the updated version will be out?</p>

16

<p>hahaha ■■■■■
i’m sure neuroscience majors have plleenttty of time to go losing their virginity. riiight.</p>

<p>i am not sure how i feel now, about someone operating on my brain. especially if they have been fondling premeds in the examination room. ahha</p>

17

<p>Some of the posts in this thread seem pretty idiotic.</p>

<p>First of all, read the first post again. This is a WOMEN’S college. This is data from ONE COLLEGE. These two facts have at least two important implications: (1) the fact that it is a WOMEN’S college means that it is probably not a good representative of data for mixed colleges, (2) even if it were a mixed college, it would not be a good representative due to its small sample size. Try throwing 100 more colleges into the mix and you will have a better sample size and a better representative of this sort of information.</p>

<p>Furthermore, especially given the second implication above, it is clear that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. It could be that the state of their virginity is almost completely unaffected by their major, and until we have better data to back up the claim that major affects virginity status, it is unwise to make such claims.</p>

<p>
[QUOTE=AUlostchick]

I don’t know how much I believe that. How many people after about age 20 are really virgins anymore? Almost everyone I know lost it between 17-19, girls and guys. This includes people in every major you could think of, including some of the ones listed up there are in the higher percentages.

[/quote]

Right … “almost everyone” you know, which is a miniscule proportion of the population. For some odd reason you think you attract friends who are perfect representatives of population data. It’s time to broaden your horizons.</p>

<p>
[QUOTE=Bigredmed]

Most recent data I recall seeing - about 60% of people lose their v-card while in HS and by the end of freshman year (for those that go to college) about 75% of people have had sex. By the age of 21, I think I recall seeing that close to 90% of people are no longer virgins.

[/quote]

Now, keep in mind that the tests taken to derive this statistical data may be flawed and unrepresentative of the population. Most of the time, from my experience, the resulting statistical data from such claims on this topic were derived from extremely small samples (e.g. 100 people or less) and/or from a small area (one college or colleges fairly close to each other in location). There may have been other statistical fallacies as well. Perhaps it was a voluntary response sample – people were allowed to choose whether they wished to be included in the trial or not, and many (most?) people who were offered part in the experiment – virgins and not – may have decided they did not want to take any part in it. Plus, if it was indeed a voluntary response sample, the fact that virginity is often seen as a social stigma among young men means that non-virgins were possibly more likely to share their virginity status than virgins, further resulting in distorted results. And even if it was not a voluntary response sample, that does not mean every subject in the experiment was truthful. How, exactly, does one really go about proving that someone lost their virginity? It may be more provable for women, of course, but that does not mean they didn’t just use a dildo to cherry-pluck themselves. And I doubt that a 100%-error-free lie detector was used (such things do not even exist yet).</p>

<p>Get it? These kinds of problems occur with many, many statistics. Scarily enough, some statistics that were completely pulled out of a person’s a** have even been published in magazines you can pick up on your way out of the gas station.</p>

<p>But I do tend to agree with the following, however contradictory it may be with my previous claims.

[QUOTE=Bigredmed]

I can definitely tell you though that where you go to school makes a difference.

[/quote]

It seems that people who worked harder during their high school years to get into better schools had less time to screw around, pun intended. Of course, this isn’t a proven fact, but the amount of data I have seen revolving around this claim is substantially greater than the implicit claim being made in the first post in this thread. Plus, this claim just seems more sensible than the claim that major affects virginity status, as any slut can declare a major in neuroscience at her local community college.</p>

18

<p>
[QUOTE=magmaman]

Some of the posts in this thread seem pretty idiotic.</p>

<p>First of all, read the first post again. This is a WOMEN’S college. This is data from ONE COLLEGE. These two facts have at least two important implications: (1) the fact that it is a WOMEN’S college means that it is probably not a good representative of data for mixed colleges, (2) even if it were a mixed college, it would not be a good representative due to its small sample size. Try throwing 100 more colleges into the mix and you will have a better sample size and a better representative of this sort of information.</p>

<p>Furthermore, especially given the second implication above, it is clear that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. It could be that the state of their virginity is almost completely unaffected by their major, and until we have better data to back up the claim that major affects virginity status, it is unwise to make such claims.</p>

<p>Quote:
Originally Posted by AUlostchick
I don’t know how much I believe that. How many people after about age 20 are really virgins anymore? Almost everyone I know lost it between 17-19, girls and guys. This includes people in every major you could think of, including some of the ones listed up there are in the higher percentages.
Right … “almost everyone” you know, which is a miniscule proportion of the population. For some odd reason you think you attract friends who are perfect representatives of population data. It’s time to broaden your horizons.</p>

<p>Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigredmed
Most recent data I recall seeing - about 60% of people lose their v-card while in HS and by the end of freshman year (for those that go to college) about 75% of people have had sex. By the age of 21, I think I recall seeing that close to 90% of people are no longer virgins.
Now, keep in mind that the tests taken to derive this statistical data may be flawed and unrepresentative of the population. Most of the time, from my experience, the resulting statistical data from such claims on this topic were derived from extremely small samples (e.g. 100 people or less) and/or from a small area (one college or colleges fairly close to each other in location). There may have been other statistical fallacies as well. Perhaps it was a voluntary response sample – people were allowed to choose whether they wished to be included in the trial or not, and many (most?) people who were offered part in the experiment – virgins and not – may have decided they did not want to take any part in it. Plus, if it was indeed a voluntary response sample, the fact that virginity is often seen as a social stigma among young men means that non-virgins were possibly more likely to share their virginity status than virgins, further resulting in distorted results. And even if it was not a voluntary response sample, that does not mean every subject in the experiment was truthful. How, exactly, does one really go about proving that someone lost their virginity? It may be more provable for women, of course, but that does not mean they didn’t just use a dildo to cherry-pluck themselves. And I doubt that a 100%-error-free lie detector was used (such things do not even exist yet).</p>

<p>Get it? These kinds of problems occur with many, many statistics. Scarily enough, some statistics that were completely pulled out of a person’s a** have even been published in magazines you can pick up on your way out of the gas station.</p>

<p>But I do tend to agree with the following, however contradictory it may be with my previous claims.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigredmed
I can definitely tell you though that where you go to school makes a difference.
It seems that people who worked harder during their high school years to get into better schools had less time to screw around, pun intended. Of course, this isn’t a proven fact, but the amount of data I have seen revolving around this claim is substantially greater than the implicit claim being made in the first post in this thread. Plus, this claim just seems more sensible than the claim that major affects virginity status, as any slut can declare a major in neuroscience at her local community college.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wow, good first post!</p>

<p>I agree with everything you said there magmaman.</p>

<p>:)</p>

19

<p>Magmaman…thanks for the statistics lesson </p>

<p>No seriously, would you like me to cite my sources? I’m in medical school, I work with evidence based medicine studies all the time, I understand the limitations of data and survey results. You do realize that good surveys have internal and external validity built in to them right? That there are ways to construct surveys so you know the data you’re getting is usable?</p>

<p>From the Vital Health Statistics Series 23, volume 24 titled Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing put out in 2004 by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC:</p>

<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_024.pdf]Link[/url”>http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_024.pdf]Link[/url</a>]</p>

<p>The stats:
30% of females aged 15-17 report ever having sex
69% of females aged 18-19 report ever having sex
31.6% of males aged 15-17 report ever having sex
64.7% of males aged 18-19 report ever having sex</p>

<p>The sample size included 9834 females and 10389 males.</p>

20

<p>

</p>

<p>if it were a simple random sample, it would be reasonably accurate, provided n >= 30. or whatever requirement there was for chi-square tests, i don’t remember.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>because art majors don’t do anything time-consuming.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>this is part of every sample requiring responses. however, if you have enough subjects, the reality can still be well-approximated. the rest is up to error bounds.</p>