<p>I've heard this rumor. A friend of mine says that because girls in general have better stats, but colleges want to keep the gender mix relatively equal, less qualified boys are admitted over more qualified girls.</p>
<p>Opinion?</p>
<p>Well, I thought this might be interesting to explore . . .</p>
<p>For a women's studies program or to a college like Haverford, Vassar, or James Madison, yes, the boy will be taken over the girl. For engineering programs and to colleges like RPI, MIT, etc, the girl will have the advantage. In most instances where boys and girls are equally represented in the major or at the college, it really should make no difference. It would be good for me if boys are taken over girls, but I doubt that it is the case. Or maybe it is like the work place where men are more likely to be promoted than women and men receive higher pay than women. I really don't know, but would like to think that boys and girls are treated equally.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. At MIT and Caltech and other tech colleges, the acceptance rate for girls is significantly higher than for boys. At some colleges, males and females are being accepted at similar rates, resulting in an imbalance in the classes (look at UVM and American as examples, which are both about 60% females). But at many schools, particularly LACs, the acceptance rates for women are lower than for men. (Except, of course, at all-female colleges.)</p>
<p>There was a New York Times op ed piece by a Kenyon admissions counselor about this phenomenon last spring; a thread started on CC about that here: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=160476%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=160476</a>. The Kenyon director pretty much came right out and said that the standards were higher for women -- yes, women had to have better stats.</p>
<p>I don't have the statistics off the top of my head, but there are significantly more women applying to college than men -- something like 58 % of all applicants are women. </p>
<p>Here are some numbers, which I posted in that Kenyon thread last year, comparing the acceptance rate of boys (M) to girls (F) in 2004.</p>
<p>Girls acceptance rate lower
Vassar 36.8 M 25 F
Sarah Lawrence 51 M 42 F
Northwestern 34.5 M 26 F
BC 36.6 M 28.6 F
Swarthmore 29 M 23 F
Pomona 23.7 M 17 F
Tufts 30.2 M 25 F
Brown 19 M 14.8 F
Wesleyan 30.5 M 26 F
GWU 41 M 36 F
Wash U 24 M 20 F
Fordham 53 M 48.6 F
Columbia 15.3 M 11.3 F
Middlebury 27.6 M 24 F
Duke 25 M 22.8 F
Emory 40 M 37.6 F
Amherst 21.5 M 20 F
Yale 10.8 M 9.1 F</p>
<p>Almost equal acceptance rate
Princeton 12.5 M 12.8 F
Harvard 10.45 M 10.92 F
Georgetown 22 M 22 F
Williams 19 M 19 F
Brandeis 39.9 M 40. 7 F
Rice 22 M 22.6 F
Stanford 13 M 12.6 F
Syracuse 58.4 M 59 F
Oberlin 36 M 37 F
Cornell 29 M 30 F</p>
<p>Girls acceptance rate higher
Case Western 69.7 M 71.7 F
Univ of Penn. 20 M 22 F
NYU 33.5 M 35.7 F
Univ. of Chic 38.8 M 41 F
Haverford 27.5 M 30 F
Dartmouth 16.9 M 20.4 F
Johns Hop 28.4 M 31.6 F
BU 53 M 57 F
Macalester 35.7 M 41 F
Lehigh 36 M 41 F
Bucknell 33.6 M 39 F
Goucher 61 M 71 F
American 46 M 57 F
MIT 11.7 M 27 F</p>
<p>Of the 10 or so ED acceptances (Ivy and Ivy-level) that I'm aware of at my son's HS, 9 of them were boys.</p>
<p>Interesting info. Would have thought Haverford and Goucher were more favorable for men. Also surprised at the American Numbers. Also the BC and Bu numbers. Easier for men to get into BC, less for BU. </p>
<p>I wonder how the numbers fluctuate or stay stable from year to year. I have heard for a while now that the LACs, in particular, are having a tough time attracting males. Where does one find accept rates separated by sex?</p>
<p>US News on-line edition has the acceptance rates by gender in the admissions part of each school's profile. You can really see how varied policies are. Here are two extremes--formerly women's college's with similar imbalances in the applicant pool. Guys seem to get a big boost at Vassar, but little if any at Wheaton.</p>
<p>Wheaton (MA)
Male applicants/acceptances/enrolled
1,224/562/166
Female applicants:
2,473/1076/301</p>
<p>Vassar
Male applicants:
1,947/746/273
Female applicants:
4,367/1,057/377</p>
<p>yeah so basically it depends on the college ur applying to</p>
<p>for most schools yes, because there are more qualified female applicants lately.. see the many articles about boys falling behind in school</p>
<p>Gee, this analysis sounds familiar. I can't wait til some girl or guy files their discrimination suit claiming higher stats are required of their gender...</p>
<p>I had heard there's a difference on gender factors when you are speaking of LAC's versus Universities. The LAC's attract females and have to work to attract males, who sometimes gravitate to the universities for the following reasons: "spin-off" name prestige that trickles down from the grad school level of the universities; perception that undergrad maths and sciences are taught better at universities than at colleges, because of big name university research grants; and sports.</p>
<p>that BC stat is surprising..no wonder I got in haha</p>
<p>At my D's HS, as well as the other HS in town, many kids apply OOS to U of Michigan. The girls, for the most part, get in. I cannot remember the last time that a boy was admitted-even when they have better stats. Hmmm...</p>
<p>those acceptance rates are most likely from the class of 2009 or even 2008 though, i know that they seem very high for 2010</p>
<p>Some of the "surprising" schools where girls' acceptance rates are higher have engineering programs...</p>
<p>Admissions into engineering and the hard sciences may be better for girls, but I think there are still issues at some schools. Often the faculty is largely male and old biases still occur. One of the more blatant examples resulted in the resignation of Harvard's former president.</p>
<p>Anyone find the gender admission stats on public universities?</p>
<p>There may be a more concise source, but if all else fails the common datasets provide a breakdown of admissions by gender. </p>
<p>Note: some of the early links in the thread are dated. There may be newer CDS info available for some of the schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Often the faculty is largely male and old biases still occur. One of the more blatant examples resulted in the resignation of Harvard's former president.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Which former Harvard president?</p>
<p>I think edad was referring to Larry Summers' resignation, which was somewhat related to the controversy over his comments about how few women had tenure in the sciences at Harvard.</p>