<p>So im a rising senior girl and will be the captain of my schools FIRST Robotics team. Only girl in the team, first one to be captain. From my experience in competition there are very very few girls in these teams. My dean told me that robotics will be a perk in my application. Do you have any experience with FRC and applications?</p>
<p>Depending on the school there is gender bias. Thanks to affirmative action if you apply for a STEM major you will most likely have an easier time. </p>
<p>I forget the stats, but girls who have successfully completed AP Physics and AP Calc BC are almost auto admits at many places, if they can back it up with strong math standardized test scores. Robotics is part of that package.</p>
<p>ok cool. `i’m taking AP Physics and AP Calc AB…is AB really that worse than BC? </p>
<p>BC is better, but AB is fine. The percentage of girls taking advanced math and AP Physics is exceptionally low.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. Some colleges may not care that their engineering school is heavily male if they are on average more than 50% female.</p>
<p>However, the engineering schools are generally easier to get in to for the girls. But even there, there is variation by school (check Parchment). Girls have a much higher admit rate at Olin, for instance, but the same as boys at RIT.</p>
<p>It’s really based on what college you’re applying too, and possibly which major. Schools with holistic admissions will attempt to “balance” the gender ratio, but it’s not a primary factor in admissions. A school that’s 65% female, and 35% male, is likely looking to increase the male %. </p>
<p>Some colleges/programs like Engineering, have low % of female students, so they may be looking to increase this percentage. On the other hand, some STEM programs (like biology) have a higher % of female student, than male.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, that your EC and your leadership experience (being captain) are a plus, no matter what the gender ratio may be at the college. Keep up the good work!</p>
<p>I’m probably going in undeclared. pure engineering seems just a bit too narrow for me. so confused on how to package myself. </p>
<p>Gender can be an advantage in such contexts where you would be underrepresented (such as engineering), and can be a disadvantage in such contexts where you would be overrepresented (such as nursing or education).</p>
<p>Robotics competition, by itself, is unlikely to distinguish you among most applications to an engineering school, for example. Even though women are underrepresented, those applicants (men and women) who do have the interest and aptitude are likely to have enjoyed similar activities as teens.</p>
<p>Now, if you’re not going right into engineering - say, for example, you’re interested in Physics as an undergrad, and are considering doing your grad work in engineering - that becomes a much more unusual activity among Arts & Sciences majors, which is where Physics departments usually are.</p>
<p>If the university only breaks down their applicant pool by college and simply considers all A&S applicants together, all Eng applicants together, etc., then being a woman is probably a disadvantage in A&S - women are generally both overrepresented in the total applications and more so in A&S. If, however, they look at your first choice of majors and try to put together their class on that basis, it could be an advantage if your particular major interest is underrepresented. </p>
<p>How do you get to be captain? Are you selected by the coach, the best on your team at the subject, selected by your peers for your leadership, selected by your peers for your organizational abilities, elected after declaring your intent? What do you do differently as team captain from all the other teammates do? How much more work was it, and what results did you achieve? How did your personal growth and understanding expand as a direct consequence of becoming, and executing the duties of, team captain? Was it (probably) different for you than it was or would have been for a male team captain?</p>
<p>FCCDAD, well to be perfectly honest, the guys on the team called me a “B!tch” because I was pushing them too hard. The teacher chose me because I was blunt with people who were slacking, and I led the effort to finish the robot before competition. ugh I’m taking my first physics course senior year and have no idea if I like it or not. I love history and social sciences, robotics because its hands on. I’m just so confused because my heart loves history my application and ec says math/engineering </p>
<p>Package yourself based on the targeted college. Some schools will require that you declare a major/college, other schools (like JHU) will not. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I think that your experience as team captain is more interesting for what it made you try and see and think about coach-captain-team interpersonal dynamics, then whatever the team actually did on the robot. I think that is a topic you should consider writing about, regardless of what major you (initially) select.</p>
<p>Your expected choice of major at the time of application can change when you select your freshman courses in orientation (or pretty much any time thereafter), with some exceptions (for example, most schools won’t allow you to register for engineering courses unless you’re admitted to the school of engineering or have met the prerequisites therefore.) You’re not really locked in until you apply to graduate.</p>
<p>For certain engineering schools, there is a slight benefit for girls in admission (i.e. higher admission rate or slightly lower admission stat). Stanford is one exception though as it shows little gender bias.</p>
<p>A great article about the subject: <a href=“A Pervasive Gender Bias (Not Just in the Sciences)”>http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/pervasive-gender-bias-not-just-sciences</a></p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is one example of a STEM oriented LAC where the admit rate is much higher for women than men:</p>
<p><a href=“Harvey Mudd College Admissions Statistics and Chances | Parchment - College admissions predictions.”>Harvey Mudd College Admissions Statistics and Chances | Parchment - College admissions predictions.;
<p>The bar is still quite high for girls though- it is not an easy admit by any stretch. It just aims for 50/50 gender mix and fewer girls apply than guys.</p>
<p>But based on your other thread it may not be a good fit for you, since you say you have an aversion to Math. It can be very math-heavy.</p>
<p>I think that your involvement in robotics will appeal to admissions officers as an interesting “hook” for a student who is interested in liberal arts - it indicates dimension. It will not have an enormous impact, though, if you are not applying to STEM programs. They are the only colleges where men significantly outnumber women. </p>
<p>I have two girls in college, so I have been through the process two times. IMO, girls tend to have higher GPA than boys in high school, because girls tend to me more mature about doing their homework, be better prepared for tests, etc. Girls, in general, are more organized earlier on. For colleges to have 50-50 girl/boy ratio, boys are sometimes admitted with lower stats than girls, especially for non-STEM majors. </p>
<p>D1 said, “I think the boys just got together and decided not to work as hard be, meanwhile us girls just killed ourselves in high school. Look who is laughing now.”</p>
<p>Some LACs may be slightly easier for some boys to get in to, but I know of no LAC where the admit rate for boys is twice as high as for girls, while at MIT and Caltech, that is the case for girls (it’s an even bigger difference at Mudd and the admit rate is several times higher for girls at Olin).</p>
<p>Yes, but as others have noted, it depends upon the school, even for STEM majors. My friend’s DD was accepted with money from GT despite stats that weren’t way up there; don’t know any STEM guys with those numbers who weren’t some special category getting that kind of money. CMU has scholarships specifically for female STEM majors, don’t remember the exact criterion. Apply to the Coast Guard Academy, and being a female makes a big difference in terms of admissions chances.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you are looking at LACs, and some other types of schools as non STEM, as a general rule, the males have an edge because there are fewer of them. At some schools, the gender bias can be quite significant.</p>
<p>At most of the colleges my son applied to, the acceptance rates were almost identical for male and female applicants, even if women significantly outnumbered men. The schools did not seem to want to compromise academic standards for gender parity. </p>