@intparent I had read about the LAC imbalance, but hadn’t realized it was actually widespread across all of higher ed. I agree with you, it doesn’t fit with the narrative for people who want to believe the only “hooks” are URM and recruited athlete. But it seems pretty obvious that there is a significant boost for young men at many colleges. As a supporter of diversity, I think it’s fine for colleges to consider gender (FWIW, I’m the mom of two girls, no boys) in admissions. But I think this should be discussed more openly.
If you look at Common Data Sets at many of these schools and crunch out the numbers, being a male can give you an edge at many but at most I wouldn’t call it a “significant boost”, maybe a few percentage points higher in the acceptance rate. Many colleges will wish for gender balance but will only stoop so low on stats and, obviously by the imbalances that do exist, feel comfort with something other than a 50/50 split.
It is interesting to look at the number and how it impacts the acceptance rates at different schools because, unlike other areas of preference like legacy, URM, athletes, development cases, we actually get to see the data, at least for those schools making CDS public.
I totally agree with you @intparent.
My sister and I and the GC thought my nephew would be a shoo-in for the highly selective schools to which he applied: boy! mixed race! high GPA! significant experience and honors in a particular EC! from an extremely segregated urban area! But for whatever reasons (probably including that, like many high school seniors, he was somewhat apathetic about the college application process), he was not accepted at these schools.
We looked at male vs. female acceptance rates (Common Data Set) at probably 15-20 LACs, when my kid (son) was developing his list of schools. At the schools where there is a gender imbalance in the student body, the difference between acceptance rates for males and females often exists, but it is rarely a huge difference, usually varies only by several percentage points. Many of the tippy-top LACS are pretty balanced.
Even at schools like Sarah Lawrence, which has a big gender imbalance, the acceptance rate, as a I recall, between males and females is not huge. It seems that fewer males who are admitted choose to attend the school, and that results in the gender imbalance. Of course, if merit is a priority for a family, finding schools where you are a desirable candidate, even if only for your gender, helps, as the school will try to turn your acceptance into matriculation with good merit etc.
" 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:-)"
It’s kind of a 180 from when I went to college and people would joke about women getting their MRS degree.
Sarah Lawrence was one of the seven sister colleges before going co-ed in the late '60s.
That along with perceptions its STEM programs are on the weak side even among elite/respectable LACs may factor in why fewer men may apply in the first place and thus, the small difference in acceptance rate between males and females.
Gender “diversity” may be a worthy goal at co-ed schools, but the number of smart ambitious girls who are getting shut out of selective colleges and universities in favor of less qualified boys makes all womens colleges an absolute necessity.
I posted this in a different thread awhile back:
Just because I recently looked it up, admissions rates for men v women at some top LACs - there are differences among them, some are much more difficult for women to get into than men, some are closer to equal.
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=vassar&s=all&id=197133#admsns (using College Nav for all but confirmed the first couple directly with college CDS) - and I literally went down the USN list but you can find these stats for any school at the link above.
Williams - 21% acceptance rate for men, 18% acceptance rate for women
Amherst - 15% for men, 13% for women
Swarthmore 20% for men, 15% for women
Bowdoin - 17% for men, 13% for women
Middlebury - 19% for men, 16% for women
Pomona - 15% for men, 10% for women
Carleton - 25% for men, 21% for women
CMC - actually even, both 11%.
Davidson - 26% for men, 19% for women
Haverford - 26% for men, 23% for women
Vassar - 34% for men, 19% for women (!)
National universities seem to be closer to “even”.
HYP are essentially even with
P at 1% higher for women
Y at 1% higher for men
H same
Columbia is 8% accept for men and 6% for women
S same
Chicago is 9% for men and 8% for women
MIT 13% vs 6% - the bright spot for women in the top 20 or so Us and LACs.
Duke - 1% higher for men
Women may have a disadvantage at Us lower down the selectivity scale, and an advantage at most tech schools.
@Ohiomomof2 Percentage rates don’t tell the whole story (although even a percentage difference of a few points can be significant). What would be more telling is the application profile. Stats don’t tell the whole story of course, but if that stats of the male applicants are lower, even if they get accepted at the same rate as the women, that means they are getting a boost. I don’t know if that is the case, but it seems like there is some research indicating that it might be.
@cobrat Sarah Lawrence is/was not a Seven Sister.
True. But I don’t think colleges will ever release that kind of info. Not private ones anyway.
The imbalance seems relatively minor. What is your child’s view of the impact of this.
When I went to school the ratio was 8:1. Socially, it was not a good scene for either the men or women. Today the school is almost 3:1 which still seems pretty bad.
@OHMomof2 Agreed. But people are always assuming that is the case with other groups (like URM) and in fact I’ve seen an assumption at times that if a URM is at a top school, of course it is because s/he is hooked, when in fact the person may have the same or similar stats to a non-URM. It would probably take a lawsuit for the material on gender to be released. From a legal perspective, however, it is easier to discriminate on the basis of gender. Race is subject to strict scrutiny, gender is subject to a mid-level if scrutiny. Other factors are subject to the lowest level of scrutiny (rational basis).
@noname87 My kid hasn’t expressed any opinion on this – I don’t think it’s on her radar. It was my curiosity. I don’t think there’s anything wrong w/ more women than men at a school. And as I said, I support diversity, so I also think it’s acceptable for schools to consider gender in admission. But based on the research people have pointed to, it does seem it’s part of a much larger demographic shift that is worth discussing.
The education system in our country is stacked against boys from kindergarten on up… there have been countless articles from Time mag NYtimes Washington post…etc for many many years now such as
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2015/02/19/why-schools-are-failing-our-boys/
or better yet
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/09/how-to-make-school-better-for-boys/279635/
Yet Ive never seen any attempts, studies, or experimental schools in our country to try and rectify the situation… at some point I feel this is going to have to be addressed…
Other countries are starting to address it - the USA needs to also!!
DItto. Apparently colleges have found that once the gender ratio goes too far off 50/50, the school becomes less desirable to both men and women.
@OHMomof2 I think I did see that list on the other thread but it’s sobering to see it again as my daughter awaits word from several of those schools.
@runswimyoga And yet for decades – centuries – the educational system was biased against girls. As recently as 30 years ago, there was significant research that, say, boys were called on more than girls, etc. Boys have had a boost for a long time. Certainly, if there are problems we should seek to rectify them (I agree w/, for example, more vocational training), but it seems there is a lot more at play here than simply the idea that there is a boy bias that is leading to fewer young men than young women applying to college.
I did research (in classrooms in NYC 5th grade) and wrote a paper on that in college…about 30 years ago 
I don’t think that has stopped happening, actually, that phenomenon of boys being called on more often than girls.