Should the gender ratio be a factor in our college choice?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>After visiting hundreds of college’s websites, going to campus visits, reading rankings and many others things, we narrow down out choices and come up with the final list. We all have our factors and we kind of know which ones are more important to us. But here’s the story:
Many of us use websites like collegeview.com or cappex.com to explore our options faster instead of visiting each college’s website. Which I think is a really good approach, because every college’s data is in the same format and we can choose the best fit for ourselves far from misleading pictures and statistics. One of these websites (collegexpress.com) puts gender ratios in the first page of each college’s profile, which made me thinking: “Is the gender ratio that big of the deal?”</p>

<p>So I started a little research. I searched the web to see if there is anyone who has something to say about this. I came up with this article:
Analyzing</a> College Gender Ratios</p>

<p>I also had a second look to some colleges in my list and WOW!!! There are some interesting colleges out there:</p>

<p>For example “University of Toronto”: with the total student of body of 82,000 students in its three campuses; there is a 9,000 students gap between men and women! (Female: 56%. Male: 44%) 9,000 students!!! That’s is more than Princeton’s total student body!!!</p>

<p>Or “University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill”: Female: 58%. Male: 42%. I actually found this article about UNC:
<a href="http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/colleges-where-men-are-in-supply/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/colleges-where-men-are-in-supply/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>What is YOUR opinion?
Do you think in co-ed colleges that women/ men make the bigger ratio of the student body, men/ women are in short supply?! Look at these lists:
Co-ed</a> Colleges with the Highest Percentage of Male Students | CollegeXpress
Co-ed</a> Colleges with the Highest Percentage of Women Students | CollegeXpress</p>

<p>What about all-women and all-men colleges then? Look at these lists:
Women's</a> Colleges | CollegeXpress
Men's</a> Colleges | CollegeXpress</p>

<p>Are your a student/ graduate of one the schools listed above? Have you ever felt like you can’t get a girl/boy friend? Yes/ No? Tell us about your experience?</p>

<p>What do you think can make this factor less/ more important? For example: Total number of the student body? Or college’s place? (Rural/ Urban? Big city/ Small city?)</p>

<p>And finally, if you are now a high school senior (or generally a college prospective student) what do think/ feel about all this?
Are going to add the gender ratio as a factor in your college choice/ search? Do you find this important at all? If yes, how important do you think it is?</p>

<p>Please, Share your opinion..</p>

2

<p>You write like a journalist, OP. Nonetheless, my D’s semi-final list had one prominent all-women’s college on it and I was a supporter of keeping it for the final list because it was the only real LAC remaining. D has one sibling, an older brother whom she’s crazy about, and has had a lot of friends who are male in high school. She likes males, she said, and wants to have them in her classroom and as part of her academic experience. One of her criteria consistently has been a diverse student body. What could I say? The all-women’s school didn’t make the final list.</p>

3

<p>Nationwide, there are more females going to college than males, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the ratios tend to be unbalanced. If you are interested in LACs, there will most likely be a strong imbalance in favor of women. If you are interested in engineering schools, there will most likely be a strong imbalance in favor of men. The nature of the institution will have a greater impact on the ratio than anything else. No one would recommend that a girl go to an engineering school primarily to meet boys any more than one would recommend that a boy go to a LAC for the same reason.</p>

4

<p>Some people fit in better in certain crowds than others, and I am able to make better friends with girls than boys. While I am interested in LACS, the marginal difference in gender will be a plus, but not a deciding factor. This isn’t to say you can’t find boys at a LAC or girls at an engineering school, but you should expect to have more of a certain gender depending on the type of institution you’re talking about. Most regular universities tyically are marginally greater in women than man (talking about 52-51% to 48-49%), the disparity is usually greater at LACs (55-60% to 40-50%) and engineering schools are almost completely dominated by men (I think it’s about 90% or something in engineering majors). I believe 1 in every 10 or 11 engineers is a woman. So yes, it also depends on the discipline. I’m sure at a school with a larger amount of males that offers a nursing major, the majority of those in nursing would be women because it’s a female-dominated field.</p>

<p>Depends on the school itself, the major you’re interested, thus affecting which classes you take, sometimes even political factors. Women are also in generally more liberal than men, so you may find more of those in a more liberal part of the country.</p>

<p>[Women</a> More Likely to Be Democrats, Regardless of Age](<a href=“http://www.gallup.com/poll/120839/women-likely-democrats-regardless-age.aspx]Women”>Women More Likely to Be Democrats, Regardless of Age)</p>

5

<p>I visited Missouri S&T earlier this year. I didn’t think the gender ratio (23% f / 77% m) would be a big deal, but after visiting, I’d rather go to a school that’s closer to 50/50… 3/4 male was super overwhelming. I don’t think a 55/45 ratio would bother me at all, though. Gender ratio only becomes an issue for me when there is a huge disparity like at Missouri S&T.</p>

6

<p>Well I don’t really care either way unless there’s a huge disparity like baileyj57 said, but my mom chose MIT over Harvard because she was afraid she wouldn’t get a guy unless women were in short supply. It worked though, I exist.</p>

7

<p>Thank you all very much…
What I wanted to know was that HOW MUCH do you care about this. For example: you are a male student and you ranked all the school by all other factors (academic, distance from home etc.) which one would you choose?
University of Michigan (QS ranking: 22 global) (Female: 58%. Male: 42%)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (QS ranking: 54 global) (Female: 49%. Male: 51%)</p>

8

<p>^^^Honestly, how much of a shortage is it when comparing 58% of 28,000 undergrads to 49% of some other really large number? There are still thousands of people of the opposite sex in either case!
And dating odds aren’t entirely dictated by statistics. It has more to do with your personality than anything else. And some college students aren’t actively trying to date anyway because they are too busy trying to get an education.
And, it doesn’t matter how much other people care about it. It only matters how much you care! Since you are asking I suspect maybe you do and if that is the case, then perhaps you should post specific questions about the dating scene on the college-specific sub-forums. You might get more precise answers there.</p>