Hi All -
I realize most of you have not heard yet from your UC applications for Fall 2016 admissions/class of 2020 graduation. I am doing a bit of an informal survey here. Having a daughter who is into engineering, I’ve been really surprised to discover the low female enrollment rates in the undergraduate engineering department at the UC’s, especially Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD. I’ve also been surprised to learn that despite lots of discussion, the numbers have not changed much over the past 5 to 6 years.
I wanted to dig a bit further into this and see if was simply a lack of qualified applicants or something else at work, esp. for California resident applicants. If any California resident female engineering applicants would be willing to share their basic stats here and where they were admitted and/or not admitted in the UC system, I’d really appreciate it.
Most interesting would be UWGPA, UC-GPA, Full Weighted GPA. SAT (single sitting), SAT Subject, ACT, HOOKS: esp. URM/1st GEN, other Non-UC schools responses. If you’ve posted stats elsewhere, just a link to that post and results from the UCs would also be helpful.
Thanks in advance. I’m really interested in why the UC numbers seem to have flat-lined where they are.
Although I’m not a female engineering applicant, I may be able to shed some light. First of all, women have traditionally been underrepresented in STEM fields. According to a study done in 2009, the ratio of genders in STEM jobs was 76% male to 24% female, whereas the ratio of total jobs was 52% male to 48% female according to the Department of Commerce (http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/womeninstemagaptoinnovation8311.pdf) . Considering that theoretically there are 3 times as many male applicants as females (I don’t have the statistics for this in the UC system, if anyone else does and can supply them, that would be great), it’s not surprising that there are less females in engineering overall.
Also, Proposition 209, passed in 1996, ended affirmative action in California public universities. I’m not really sure how to explain this one thoroughly, however.
Thanks RampagingRhino. I had been aware that women were underrepresented in STE(A)M fields and education. What I was surprised to see is how little change there has been. It appears at UCLA/Samueli, for instance, that only something like 22.8% of total undergraduate enrollment in engineering for 2014 were women, up only around 1.5% from 21.2% in 2012 which was a small improvement from the 20.9% in 2011. Growth of way less than 1% of total enrollment per year. http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/seasoasa/UCEE-Report-2015_2_27.pdf
It looks like ME, Aerospace, CS and CS&E were all 16% or less female enrolled in 2014. I guess it’s a decent improvement over 2010’s 16% women, but I was under the impression the UCs (and colleges in general) had done a much better job of attracting female engineering students. I’m just trying to figure out if the problem is a lack of interested qualified applicants, or something more structural in the system. I know a lot of my kid’s women friends are interested in engineering or “hard science” and have been accepted to very competitive schools. I’m just trying to get a sense if the UCs are more or less receptive to in state female engineering applicants that other competitive state universities or privates.
And if I’m reading this right in 2002 UCLA was 22.5% female undergrad at Samueli. http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/seasoasa/2003-UCEE-Report.pdf
So we’ve basically had 0 improvement in 10+ years? Really wonder what that is about.
Apparently some of the UC results have come out -
Again, if you are an IN STATE CALI WOMEN applying to ENGINEERING I’d love to collect your stats and where you were accepted and/or rejected (and where you will SIR if you know). Want to get a data-base of stats for women in the UC system to try to figure out why the engineering attendance and acceptance rates for women stay so low. Thanks in advance. (and thanks to those that have posted.)
Hi, I’m from Sacramento County. I applied for UC San Diego’s Mechanical Engineering program and Nanotechnology Engineering as an alternative. I was accepted into the school as Undeclared, which is what can happen if you apply for both capped majors. I decided to enter as a physics major with the intent to transfer into Mechanical Engineering later on. Here are some of my stats:
Notables:
- Valedictorian (Class Rank 1 of 259)
- GPA: 4.23 (3.89 UW)
- ACT: 31 (Highest Science 34)
- Tons of volunteering: church, food bank, drop year for volunteering in other states
- Can play multiple instruments, was in marching band, jazz band, winter percussion for one-two seasons
- Took AP classes, obviously
- Took college courses (dual-enrollment) at community college
- Great, unique personal statements and additional coments (if you want a look, I can pull it up for you)
Disagreeables:
- Missing A-G requirement (foreign language. Took two year’s worth but not in the same language)
- Missing credits for a part of a semester due to lack of accreditation
- Did not take a physics class
- Did not take AP tests
Diversity Checks
- First-generation Asian-American (Filipino may or may not be considered URM)
- Bisexual
- Hard of Hearing
- Single, widowed mother
- Homeschooled for a semester
- Charter school afterwards
I was a pretty unusual situation, in the end. I currently recieved the $12,240 California grant, am eligible for the pell grant, and am still waiting on private scholarships.
@akchachi21 Congrats! That’s awesome. Have fun at UCSD.
If you’d be comfortable, I’d love to know where else you did or did not get in. Thanks.
@CaliDad2020 I couldn’t really afford more college applications,
but I was also accepted to:
- Purdue University - Mechanical Engineering (reach)
- Montana State University - Mechanical Engineering (applied because application was free)
- University of Alaska Fairbanks - Mechanical Engineering (safety)
I am also waiting for responses from some colleges abroad.
Hi All - for some reason the mods pulled down the individual school threads and only left up this general thread.
Most everyone has heard from all the UCs now, so if anyone wants to add any info, that would be great. I have collected a bunch of stats already and they pretty much show what I expected: the admission ratio is somehow being kept consistent regardless of raw number of applicants. But more info is always interesting.
Good luck to everyone no matter where you were accepted. The most important thing in the college process is graduating!
@CaliDad2020 Graduating from HS or college?
@Desiree2 HS first. College 2nd. One of the worst things you can do it get 3 years into college debt and not finish!
BTW, I’m sure everyone has seen this:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-uc-audit-admissions-20160328-story.html
Just confirmation of what we suspected. President Napolitano and the UC Deans and Chancellors like Choudry and Katehi have to go. We need to stop hiring carpetbaggers and put folks in place who have California’s students and their futures at heart.
It’s really been enlightening looking into this issue on these boards.
What an eye-opener.