<p>With that in mind, and also the fact that math and science fields/careers remain predominantly male, what are other girls interested in science, math, or engineering at Caltech thinking right now? Feel free to share your ideas/comments/concerns/advice. </p>
<p>PS It would be awesome if a current female student could share her views.</p>
<p>I plan on applying to Caltech and I'm a female. But I don't know if that will help me get in. Here's hoping my credentials are enough and I'm lucky enough to be accepted.</p>
<p>Hi! Congrats on your acceptance! And a Chicagoan too. Nice. :D</p>
<p>I'm a female tech frosh from the Chicago area. </p>
<p>I like it here. People make jokes about "the ratio" a lot, but I haven't found it that obvious, to be honest. Sometimes it's noticeable, sometimes it's not, but I've never found it to be a problem. Though the extent to which "the ratio" is noticeable might vary between houses. </p>
<p>My advice would be to come to prefrosh weekend and spend some time talking to other tech women, if you're concerned. Even if you're not concerned, you should come to prefrosh weekend anyway, especially if you've never visited campus before. :-P</p>
<p>And good luck with your application, venusinfurs!</p>
<p>Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about this or just Tech in general. ;)</p>
<p>well, i'm thinking "gee, the applicants probably heard of caltech's increasing gender ratio and figured they must have started practicing affirmative action => easier to get in." or some other reason. i dunno.</p>
<p>i'm pretty apathetic towards the ratio. i don't really care if my friends are guys or girls...</p>
<p>I am still waiting for my mail(probably deferred though..... all my friends got their's on Friday... I think my mail man lost my mail again!! grrr one time, he delivered my SAT score report a whole block down....)</p>
<p>It's funny IMSgeek mentioned the ratio... as a girl I often find myself to be the only girl in a group of 20 guys or so during robotics meetings. Sometimes it scares me that as the only girl, I am actually leading them and it's always me standing up in the front talking. Math club is less extreme.. but the ratio is still pretty big.
I can't imagine the ratio to be a big issue as people make it sound since it's probably like this for us since high school or even before.</p>
<p>umm, i'm a girl and i'm accepted and I'm going because Caltech is so amazing. and i don't mind being around a lot of guys because i'm into lots of guy stuff like sports and video games and scifi shows and running around with tools, so i feel like i'll fit in fine. and all the guys i met out there were really nice so i guess i don't really mind.</p>
<p>Hey JNT, don't refer to those things as "guy stuff" because that only further perpetuates the societal roles people expect men and women to fulfill. :p </p>
<p>To be honest, my only concern when applying to Caltech was the ratio. I read up on the detestable practice of "glomming" (google it!) and crossed my fingers hoping that it didn't actually occur. </p>
<p>I think women should not put a veil over their femininity--being a woman is a beautiful thing; we don't have an improperly formed X-chromosome like men and we give men their mitochondria. Men could not exist without us women, whereas the opposite is untrue. Women can indeed exist without men! So, boo any man that says otherwise. </p>
<p>Although I have not yet heard back from Caltech (damn New York!), if I am accepted I will go, but I will not lock my womanhood away so I can play with the "big boys."</p>
<p>Sorry (my mother would say the same thing you did :o ) I looked up glomming (which is absolutely horrible by the way) and though i was only on campus for two days and am therefore nothing like an expert, i encountered no evidence of any such practice and all of the people I met were really nice to me. It was a guy who asked me if i was lost and took me around campus all day and introduced me to the entire house and stuff.</p>
<p>As much as "The Ratio" might seem like an issue, it's really not. You don't notice it unless you explicitly think about it. I've encountered male and female students intending to major in nearly every area Caltech offers, so I don't think you should necessarily consider yourself "tracked" into a particular major (or subset thereof) simply on the basis of gender.</p>
<p>And, venusinfurs, affirmative action on the basis of gender isn't going to help you get it. You'll get in here if you deserve admission on the basis of your achievements. The increase in female EA applicants, will, in all likelihood correlate to an increase in the number of females accepted, but that's not because the admissions committee is relaxing its standards (if anything, in the face of the applicant surge, tightening them instead) but because simply put, more applied and probably, if they're applying to Caltech, are highly self-selected, just like our entire applicant pool.</p>
<p>Nope, all houses are coed...coed to the point that the bathrooms are not divided between the genders (in the South Houses, at least); coed to the point that it is even possible for a guy and a girl to share a room. :)</p>
<p>So obviously I am not a girl; forgive the intrusion. But I feel I have to comment on something here. While the author of the Ms. Magazine article clearly has thought a lot about these issues, there are two observations to be made. First, she definitely has a very fringe view of the environment on campus. Don't take my word for it, but just pick 10 women on campus at random when you visit and ask them to honestly tell you what they think. I would bet substantial money that none of them would paint a picture anywhere near that negative from their own experiences. Second, but relatedly, as a graduate student looking in on undergraduate life, the author hears and reports horror stories but lacks any context to see whether these are aberrations or representative of normal behavior. They are definitely closer to the former. While there are groups of rude or misogynistic people on campus -- as on any coed campus -- it is well-known who they are and it is easy to avoid them if you wish. </p>
<p>I'm not claiming that the problems she identifies aren't real. As at EVERY top university, there are examples of sexual harassment and even assault, although the number of such incidents is small. The problem with the article is just that the author takes the most extreme example of every issue and makes it sound typical, which is misleading. 95% of glomming consists of an inexperienced guy trying hard to find opportunities to be around a girl he likes and not getting the hint right away if she's not interested. (The vast majority do get the hint if you say that you're not comfortable with him being around so much.) This is an awkward situation, but one that can be resolved without much trouble, and (gasp) one that happens in the world outside Caltech too. And it is not as sinister as widespread stalking, which is what the author makes it sound like.</p>
<p>None of this should obscure the fact that most of the girls I knew at Caltech loved being there. The house system builds great friendships and creates a support network of friends who can look out for you if you are put in an uncomfortable situation. Many girls like the extra attention and the chance to be around lots of guys who are similar to them. And most Caltech men are gentlemen with the greatest respect for women who would go to great lengths to protect them from discomfort. So keep that in mind. Also it would be good if some Caltech girls chimed in since obviously I am not exactly qualified to comment in the first person.</p>
<p>um I pretty convinced that article is a load of bull.
I would just like to point out that the article described the campus as predominately white. um... check collegeboard. there are more asians alone than whites, not to mention other minorities.</p>
<p>Talk to real undergrad women, prefrosh! Personally I think that article is blowing things way out of proportion. I haven't had any trouble being a girl at tech yet, and also, there are plenty of people I would feel comfortable going to for help if I ever did feel like there was a problem. I agree with Ben in that the house system seems to help a lot in this regard.</p>
<p>sari: I did go to prefrosh weekend, and I had a good time. I mean, obviously you have to take prefrosh weekend with a grain of salt, because everyone wants to make a good impression for potential students. However, it's a great opportunity to meet techers and to get a feel for how they interact with each other. Plus it's fun. </p>
<p>I can't stress this enough: Don't let yourself be turned off by the ratio without visiting campus at least once. A lot of it will depend on your own personal comfort level, and there's no way of knowing that save coming here and seeing for yourself.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest, the ratio excites me :D. I'm totally ready to own man-butt. </p>
<p>I also am not worrying about glomming itself; I am pretty sure I could defend myself against the strange predators looming on campus ;). I was slightly worried, and still am, about the general disposition of Techer-males and their level of comfort around women.</p>