<p>As a female, I have experienced a lot of sexism in my math and science classes in high school. This year in AP Physics B, I'm one of the only girls in my class and all the guys disregard me during labs even though I've proven myself many times over (I've come up with solutions to problems and labs when they couldn't). Will going to MIT be similar to this? MIT is a very math/science/engineering based school with a 60% male student body... Do I have anything to worry about?</p>
<p>MIT’s actually pretty close to 50-50 gender-wise – the last numbers I could find put the school at 53-47 a few years ago. Not that gender bias is an exclusively numbers-based thing, of course.</p>
<p>Personally speaking, I don’t feel that I ever experienced gender-based discrimination at MIT. (Other than the fact that the labcoats all buttoned the guy way…) I’ve experienced much more discrimination as a graduate student (not at MIT, but I’m not sure it matters) than I ever did as an undergrad, which I think is fairly typical. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, MIT undergrads are pretty accepting and egalitarian, not to mention practical – if it’s late, and there’s a problem set due tomorrow, there’s no sense being a jerkwad to half the people who could potentially help you solve the problems. And professors are unfazed by female undergrads, given that half the school has been female for a long time.</p>
<p>There are a lot of resources women can take advantage of at MIT, from the purely social, like sororities, to student groups and institutional centers. I can’t really speak to those resources, because I never felt that I needed to take advantage of them. The only other student at MIT who cared intensely that I was a woman ended up marrying me. :)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your response. It was really comforting! And that’s really cute that you found your husband at MIT!</p>
<p>I’d agree with mollie. Part of the reason I really enjoy MIT is because I feel like most people there have pretty egalitarian views on gender. It’s not perfect - sadly, very few, if any, places are - but I’d say compared to most places I’ve been it’s near the top. </p>
<p>I think part of that, honestly, is because very few people could spend more than a few moments around an MIT woman before any remaining STEM chauvinism would be blasted from their brain.</p>
<p>I’ll note that some majors are skewed gender-wise, but that seems to have a lot more to do with how early people were exposed to things than MIT-driven. (Example - Course 6 is more male than female, but a lot of guys seem to be encouraged to do CS stuff at an early age where girls just aren’t.)</p>
<p>I haven’t experienced any gender (or race, or other) discrimination here, which is really nice ^_^</p>