<p>At many selective colleges (mostly LACs) there is a major male/female imbalance — usually around 57% female, 43% male.</p>
<p>Do admissions people in general consider this a big problem? Do males have an admissions advantage in most cases, even when stats might be a little lower? </p>
<p>Lets say Suzy has a 3.9 GPA / 29 ACT and Biff has a 3.9 GPA / 27 ACT — will Biff usually get the slot?</p>
<p>We’ve been to some schools with a 30/70 male to female ratio and they flat out told us that males are given preferential treatment to get that ratio closer to 50/50. In your example my guess is yes, Biff will get in before Suzy but I would say that most likely at the schools we visited that the stats will be closer with Biff having a 28 at least but not sure.</p>
<p>If Biff and Suzy had identical credentials, Biff would have an advantage at many colleges, unless he was applying to engineering. For engineering, Suzy would have the advantage.</p>
<p>The common data set for a college usually lists the acceptance rates for males and females separately, so you can check an individual school’s data in that area.</p>
<p>^ Right you are mamabear. Just checked one of the schools S is interested in. It shows a 2% higher acceptance rate for males. But my S is on the lower end of the 50% zone for test scores (but top 25% for GPA) and that’s why I’m wondering about a possible bump even if a test score is a little low.</p>
<p>The GC at our DS’s school reports seeing this over and over with the kids he has applying to the same colleges, with virtually identical applications. He sees everything the kids send, too: LORs, transcripts, scores, the students, essays, and he writes one of the LORs for each kid assigned to him. Males definitely have an advantage at all but the traditionally high-male colleges (like Harvey Mudd, MIT and the like).</p>
<p>It depends on the school, but yes, some LACs give admissions boosts to men, especially those trying to maintain a matched ratio. Applying students should consider the difference in acceptance rates when trying to determine reach/match/safety.</p>
<p>This thread has some statistics, but is a few years out of date now.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/798055-male-female-lac-acceptance-rate-differentials.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/798055-male-female-lac-acceptance-rate-differentials.html</a></p>
<p>This OpEd from a Kenyon admissions officer is entitled “To All the Girls I’ve Rejected”
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/23britz.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/23britz.html</a></p>
<p>The NCES College Navigator website lists the male and female acceptance rates, so you can look for schools you are interested in.
[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>I think that males might get a finger on the scale, but not if they are unqualified.</p>
<p>This is the case mostly at small but selective LACs…A school with a small entering class and the administration does not want the demographic to skew any more femaie. So, taking two students who are both holistically qualified to be there, they may take the male over the female even if the female has slightly higher scores. In the example given in the OP’s post, Biff is not a shabby student.</p>
<p>It is not as if the school would accept a male with a 2.6 and ACT of 19 over the female with the 3.9 and 29.</p>
<p>The males don’t even have to have lower scores to still have a higher acceptance rate. At many of these schools there are an overabundance of qualified applicants.</p>
<p>We found the Common Data Set most helpful.</p>
<p>We found some schools where Males acceptance rates had a 5% spread vs. female.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, we also found many LACs where the AR for each sex was the same.</p>
<p>In combing thru data, Males tend to do better on Standardized testing. This leads me to agree with @mathmom. Plenty of qualified applicants, just higher percentage of boys getting acceptances.</p>
<p>It is not clear if Biff woud get the edge at most schools. I looked at National Center for Ed stats for several reasonably highly ranked schools in PA and in most cases (Bucknell, Lafayette, Muhlenberg and Penn) GIRLS had a higher admit percent.</p>
<p>At Brown, girls had a lower % admittance, but the number of girl applicants (around 18,500) was much higher than boys (around 12,500). </p>
<p>I don’t think that for most highly selective schools the boys are any less qualified than the girls. I think this issue has been overstated at all but a few LACS that attract many more girl applicants than boys. And, in the opposite direction, at schools or programs that attract more boys.</p>
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<p>I think that males only get an admissions edge at schools that have more female than male students, especially LACs, who are trying to keep the populations relatively balanced. Bucknell and Lafayette are somewhat unusual LACs in that they offer engineering, and have more matched male/female populations, and hence don’t need to go out of their way to attract male students. Penn is an Ivy League University, with engineering and business schools, and a matched population.</p>
<p>There are many LACs that are much more mismatched. So it is very dependent on the individual school. From the link I posted above, post #43, here are differentials at some LACs. </p>
<p>Rank School Coed AR M AR F AR F-M D % Diff
6 Pomona 15.6% 20.3% 12.7% -7.6% 59.8%
4 Middlebury 16.8% 20.3% 14.4% -5.9% 41.0%
14 West Point 15.7% 16.6% 12.0% -4.6% 38.3%
3 Swarthmore 15.7% 18.8% 13.7% -5.1% 37.2%
46 Skidmore 29.8% 34.7% 27.3% -7.4% 27.1%
14 W&L 16.8% 18.7% 15.2% -3.5% 23.0%
13 Wesleyan 27.2% 30.4% 25.0% -5.4% 21.6%
6 Bowdoin 18.6% 20.5% 16.9% -3.6% 21.3%
33 Kenyon 31.3% 34.4% 29.0% -5.4% 18.6%
8 Davidson 25.7% 28.0% 23.7% -4.3% 18.1%</p>
<p>Suzy will have the edge because she will have started the process earlier, will have done a more organized and focused college search, visited more campuses, written her essays over the summer, followed up on recommendations, and submitted the applications well before the deadline.</p>
<p>On one school tour with our son last summer, the tour guide was asked this question. He very directly said that given equal applications, the males have an edge because the school was trying for a 50/50 balance. At that time, the split was almost 70/30 in favor of females. The tour guide went on to say that for the same reason, more financial aid would be in the males’ acceptance offers, the better to entice them to enroll. My son did not end up choosing this school, but a high school classmate of his DID enroll, largely due to the really amazing financial aid package he was given.</p>
<p>I am still unclear on why this doesn’t fall afoul of the federal anti-discrimination provisions that apply to those institutions (99.9% of them) receiving federal money?</p>
<p>arabrab–hard to argue discrimination when some of these schools have 70% female attendance…</p>
<p>Also, many girls want the ratio to be even.</p>
<p>According to this New York Times opinion piece entitled, “To All the Girls I Have Rejected” written in 2006 by the Dean of Admissions at Kenyon College, it seems that male applicants applying to selective colleges have a better chance than similarly situated females.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/23britz.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/23britz.html</a></p>
<p>Agree, my D’s wouldn’t want to go somewhere that was over 55% female (and that is one of the stats they checked when investigating colleges). I don’t think preference in admission is considered discrimination unless there is some sort of quota involved?</p>
<p>Looking over sacchi’s data from above, perhaps my D needs to seriously consider ED if she decides on a top LAC as her #1 choice. I don’t think she will be able to make up her mind by November though.</p>
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<p>This is true.</p>