<p>Tiny (~26 students) two-year Deep Springs College in rural California has been known for nearly a century (to those who know it at all) as a curious combination of intellectual and physical rigor. Students attend for free but, in turn, shoulder the duties required to maintain the school facilities and ranch. </p>
<p>Admission to Deep Springs has always been highly competitive, and its grads are commonly offered transfer spots at the world's most renowned universities. </p>
<p>Many single-sex institutions opted for coeducation in the early 1970s. Others (e.g., Goucher, Wheaton) followed a decade or more later. Yet a number of prominent colleges still remain staunchly women-only, insisting that this option should remain available to those who seek it.</p>
<p>So how about all-male schools ... is this option an important one, too?</p>
<p>From the Inside Higher Ed story cited above:</p>
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<p>My husband attended Amherst College in the early 1970’s when it was all male, although there were lots of women on campus … taking classes during the day via the Five College Consortium and arriving by the busload for parties at night. He thought that he had the best of all worlds, and he wasn’t elated by the co-ed decision several years later. However, he didn’t condemn it either, as some of his classmates and other alums did. Yet he did feel at the time that single-sex education for men had its place. I’m not sure if he still feels the same way. (We haven’t discussed it in about 34 years. Maybe I’ll go bait him now. )</p>
<p>^^Pretty much ALL intercollegiate sports teams are exclusively one sex or the other. I’m having trouble thinking of a sport that isn’t. Sports where men and women compete head to head are very rare - Equestrian maybe. </p>
<p>As for Deep Springs, I suspect they are going coed to lessen their “Brokeback Mountain” image.</p>
<p>I hear that the student body at Deep Springs has been in favor of coeducation for years, but they were always shot down by the trustees. This change was probably inevitable as older alumni pass on and younger ones take their places among the decision-makers.</p>
<p>Men and women sometimes compete together in sailing, too.</p>
<p>In the 1960s I attended Rutgers when it was still all male. While Douglass was just across town most of the classes were all male. Mistake. I made up for it when I went graduate school at Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>I was going to apply to transfer possibly to Deep Springs and start undergrad over again in the desert. Never mind now. I think it’s a huge and terrible mistake in my honest opinion, but what do I know? I am merely a prospective student. Wow, this thread kinda ruined my afternoon today. That sucks, Deep Springs was honestly one of my favorite schools. </p>
<p>And no, I am not gay lol I just thought that one of the many unique things Deep Springs offered was an escape from thoughts of relationships, women, and sex. I guess not now.</p>
<p>I can see the benefits of an all-male college – similar to those of all-female colleges. There’s less social pressure, more incentive to seek help, and probably a stronger desire to impress peers. </p>
<p>It’s sad to see all-male colleges withering away…I guess it’s instinctive for a 20-something male to want females more than women of that same age wanting men…</p>
<p>Wabash has seen an increase in enrollment and selectivity, and the alumni are very supportive of keeping the school all-male. As someone who went to an all-women’s college, there is something to be said for the inslusive nature, and the lack of distractions and social pressures during the week.</p>
<p>I am sorry to see Deep Springs go co-ed but if the students and board think that it is best, then I support them in their decision. One of the charms of Deep Springs was that it offered an almost monastic lifestyle that allowed students a more contemplative environment in which to focus on their studies. I wonder how that is all going to work with girls thrown into the mix. With such a small student body, I wonder if they won’t have to implement some sort of no fraternization rule.</p>
<p>cbrand, I think a no-fraternization rule would be disastrous in terms of enforcement. </p>
<p>What may well happen is that a brother/sister kind of thing will emerge among the students, and relationships will be rare. Certainly that was what tended to happen between the “coeds”–male exchange students–and women at my women’s college, back in the day. Some guys assumed that they would have a sexual field day, and were quite disappointed. :)</p>
<p>Consolation, I agree with you. Bear in mind that this is a school where castrating steers all day is not necessarily followed by a shower. I doubt that the arrival of the kind of women who want to read Heidegger while mucking cattle pens in the desert is going to change that aspect of the culture very much.</p>
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From the likelihood, maybe. </p>