The Arts & Sciences programs at big city private schools* also tend to enroll a higher proportion of females. (Which makes USoCal an outlier since its closer to 50:50.)
*Or at least the ones my kids were interested in.
It’s predicted that women will be the majority of law students in 2017.
At LACs w engineering degrees, the gender imbalance tends to be the other way-- heavy on males.
@LionsMum, it is discussed out here that males have an edge in LAC admissions. Comes up on the Chances threads pretty often. Somehow the people who like to complain that some group has an unfair advantage don’t seem to want to talk about that, though – it doesn’t fit their narrative. 
Yes, this is true across the whole spectrum of higher Ed, with some notable exceptions whihc have been mentioned. I haven’t read every post, but MIT and Lafayette seem to have more males than females. In the case of Lafayette, I think it’s because it’s a D1 school, albeit a small one. A University like Brown gets about 25% more applications from women. Being male is a big boost at a lot of colleges.
@LionsMum , FWIW, it doesn’t seem to bother the students too much, as far as we can tell. My D has applied mainly to LACs, for the most part, they all are about 45-55 men to women. I wonder what would happen if more guys were aware of this overall? I have actually heard of men who apply to colleges with a large ratio of women because they want to have a girlfriend. Sad but true:-)
@Lindagaf, why is it “sad but true” that some men apply to colleges with lots of women so they can have a girlfriend? Assuming that’s not the only reason why they might choose a particular college, I think it’s terrific! My D attends a LAC with a pretty hefty gender imbalance, and it’s apparent that many of the guys–maybe because they think they have lots of choice–don’t want a girlfriend and instead seek out “hookups.” How nice it would be for the women there if there were men who expressly sought out committed relationships!
Exactly what you just said. I wish the guys weren’t just looking for hook ups.
I was referring to the kinds of guys that DO just want to find girls at college, and maybe not necessarily girlfriends.
Why is that sad? I have two daughters who considered the issue because they hoped to have boyfriends. I think it would be sad to have so many girls with so few boys that they couldn’t have dating experiences in college. My son has chosen to attend a small LAC with a very skewed gender ratio, and he actually wasn’t thrilled about it initially, but we went to some departmental admitted events and found that there was a critical mass of boys, which was important to him because he wants to have guy friends. But he is happy that there are so many seemingly nice girls, as well, because he has always made clear that he would like to get married and have a family someday. An educated woman with something in common with him would make a nice daughter-in-law someday. I’ve noticed that my son has received more merit money than he should have at the schools with the most skewed ratios. I’m ok with that.
I read somewhere on CC that larger female gender imbalance = much less relationships in college. Guys have their pic of girls, and girls are desperate because of lack of guys, so lots of hookups.
With all the social engineering going on in admissions for diversity, I think they should consider gender too…obviously exactly 50/50 doesn’t matter, but 60/40 seems like a huge imbalance. <my opinion,="" don’t="" flame="" me="">.
Why are men not going to college?
Men are going to college. It’s just that they tend to want to study majors that aren’t necessarily offered at LACs, though nowadays you can study virtually,anything at an LAC. And many selective colleges do practice social engineering. Brown gets many more female applicants than male, but it’s always ends up with about a 50-50 ratio. Lots of,the very selective LACs are similar.
Is what’s going on really related to majors? Has it always been this way. Or are males less prepared for college than they used to be? Are there other factors, say computer games and the like?
There have been books, articles and Ph.D. dissertations written about why U.S. women are doing better than men in schools and colleges at this juncture in history. There’s no easy answer. Note that men still run the major institutions, earn more money etc.
The men who run institutions are of a totally different generation than the young men choosing their colleges today.
I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for the gender imbalance. Many young black men are in prison, the K-12 education system has not helped boys to be as successful as girls for many reasons, more young men than young women choose to enter the military rather than attend college, more young men choose professions that don’t require a college degree, colleges campuses are often hostile to males. I think overall the imbalance probably is not a great thing, but it is what it is, and I don’t think it’s sad for every potential student to consider gender among many other variables when choosing a college. My best friend’s son attended a tech school that was very heavily male, and he is very shy and a little awkward. Frankly, he never had a chance with the girls on his campus, and it impacted his college yeas in a negative way. His mom swears that he would have been much happier in a school that was more female because there might have been a nice girl or nice girls who would have taken a chance on him, while the smaller number of girls at his school could afford to be picky and were. Again, considering these things are, I think, good. Everyone should come to his or her own conclusion, but it’s a valid consideration.
Although the sex ratio was not a deciding factor for either of my daughters, it certainly was something they thought about. They would have liked to date more. I’m sure that most young people give some consideration to the availability of eligible partners, whether of the opposite sex or the same, when they’re deciding where to go to college or to work.
Boston Univ. is also on D’s list, and I agree that one’s a puzzle because it has 18,000 students and a wide array of majors . It is in the Patriot League, though, so maybe the guys who are into big time football and basketball don’t choose it for that reason. Lafayette is great for engineering, which explains their better gender balance.
I think “hook-up culture” is much more complex than gender imbalance at colleges, in fact, I’d argue it has little to do with it. I also think putting males on the hook for casual sex is bringing up old stereotypes. Plenty of young men want committed relationships and gasp young women can be perfectly fine with casual sex. Neither of my children have had problems developing meaningful relationships at LACs, nor have many of their peers. I just feel it discredits both genders to continue to promote dated gender stereotypes that don’t mesh with the real world scenarios I see amongst my children and their friends and classmates.
Interesting article on the topic:
** Unequal Gender Ratios at Colleges Are Driving Hookup Culture: **
http://time.com/money/4072951/college-gender-ratios-dating-hook-up-culture/
I agree with doschicos that it doesn’t advance the discussion. To me it dredges up the put down of young women at single sex colleges (when those other bastions of knowledge refused to accept any females) that they all were seeking an “Mrs.” degree.
This topic of the current gender percentages hits very close to home. I’m the mother of 3 girls and this is our second year going through undergrad admissions. As intparent stated, favoritism of boys isn’t something people want to talk about, but it is obvious from the common data sets and general observation. I’ve heard or read many rationales for the practice:
(1) “Holistic admissions”- boys at this age are naturally immature relative to girls so they need special/different consideration in admissions, and are more interesting as “angular” applicants whereas girls are too “well rounded”;
(2) with so many girls playing sports now Title IX actually forces colleges to accept males to comply with the federal mandate (hence squash and racquetball);
(3) residence hall facilities were designed for discrete numbers of boys;
(4) male graduates will earn more straight out of college, thus helping with ranking and stats;
(5) male graduates donate more because they earn more over their lifetimes;
(6) older male alums stop giving when the gender balance tips.
Any others?
Both of my kids applied to LACs. S12 had significantly lower stats than D15 and different preferences, but they did overlap apps at one college. They were both admitted and both given the same amount of merit $, despite the stat differences. It was a reach for one and a safety for the other.
Having been on CC prior to S12’s app time, I knew he’d have an advantage at LACs and that partly drove his final list. And his results.
Ironically D is at one of the very few LACs that has slightly more men than women.
I think what is driving it is the change in expectations and options for women. When I was growing up in the sixties, my dad thought I would be s teacher or secretary (seriously – he made my brothers take a semester of typing in HS because he had gotten to be a supply specialist in WWII because he knew how to type, but I had to take a full year because it was important for secretaries).
Princeton didn’t start admitting women until 1969, Harvard in 1977. Now, obviously, women are able to apply and considered on equal footing for admission to college. My theory is that women would ALWAYS have attended and succeeded in higher numbers if they had been given equal opportunity and encouragement to do so. It isn’t women who have changed, it is the options svailable to them. And I love to see that women have taken full advantage of those options, and our society benefitting from women getting to explore and use their talents fully.