I’ve been told time and time again that my being female and interested in a STEM major is a hook.
Is it really though?
Hook means the college definitely wants you. Female STEM majors may be valued by certain schools but it’s hit and miss. To say it’s a blanket “hook” on par with a recruited athlete is a reach, IMHO.
Plus the TYPE of STEM is also important. Bio or BME? Women are commonplace. Nuclear Eng or Comp Sci? Less common.
Depends on the university. At universities that admit by major/school or are tech institutes, it may. At universities where they don’t and students declare their major later (and there aren’t restrictions making it hard to switch major/college, likely not). So it won’t be at most of the elite privates (but would be at MIT and Caltech).
Mmm… it depends on the school, I think. For tech schools (Mudd, Rose-Hulman, RPI, WPI, etc.), you can probably tell something by looking at the Common Data Set for each. You can calculate the percentage of acceptance by gender with the information you find there. But also know that only girls with a deep interest in tech are likely to apply, and they still need to be qualified to do the work to be accepted. But a girl with great stats and strong ECs is probably more likely to get accepted at Mudd than a male student, for example, just given the numbers of each applying.
I am not so sure about large public universities – for example, I don’t know if it is any kind of hook for U of Michigan CoE. It may give you a bit of an edge if the school has any concern about trying to balance gender in their enrollment or if they have an interest in increasing the number of women in STEM professions, but I don’t know how you could tell. I think it is going to be harder to tease out the numbers at those types of schools because majors are all mushed together (STEM and non-STEM).
Interest in Bio is probably not a hook anywhere – it is a STEM major that actually probably draws more female than male students. Also, colleges know students are very likely to change majors. So you may think you want to major in physics, but that might not be where you really end up (although I suspect that most STEM majors outside of bio DO end up in some kind of STEM field if they switch).
Regarding whether it is “enough” – it probably will help a bit IF you also have competitive stats, competitive ECs, and strong recommendations. You might get the edge over a comparable male candidate at many schools. But don’t count on it making up for that if you are deficient in those areas.
how about a URM interested in STEM?
(URMS both for college and for STEM field)