<p>I think people take admissions statistics at face value. Although there may be a 60/40 proportion of applicants to an Ivy that takes 51/49, this does not necessarily mean that women are somehow smarter, or are the victims of a chauvinist anti-meritocracy. </p>
<p>As mentioned before, elementary school and middle school are not male-friendly places. How many male elementary school teachers did you have? One, if that? Same with me. In elementary school you learn how to have neat handwriting and read and make cute little art projects. That’s pretty much the extent of elementary education in the US (and the problems with this go beyond a gender gap). All of these things are undoubtedly geared towards females. Males, particularly at a young age, are not going to have meticulous organizational skills, and take slightly longer to learn to read. They will fall behind. They may be able to scrape by because of the urgings of parents, but the curriculum is not geared towards these males, and they are behind in spite of a lack of obvious disparity in grades. </p>
<p>Then, they hit middle school, usually in 6th grade around age eleven. Around this time, most girls are starting to go through physical and mental maturity, and are more able to transition to their new environs. 6th grade males are still, for all intensive purposes, still little kids for the most part. Middle school is where a lot of boys get lost. Elementary/middle school years are one’s formative years, where habits are created and high school is prepared for. Men are at a distinct disadvantage going into high school, and I think for the most part at this point the gap doesn’t widen or shrink significantly. So, basically, I think it’s clear that males lose ground before high school (due to their fault and the fault of educators), and thus do not have the work habits that girls the same age have.</p>
<p>I also think it’s very fair to say that females are more acclimated to the current college admissions standards. A successful applicant needs to maintain a high GPA with a course load that he or she can barely handle, score highly on standardized tests, and juggle a plethora of extracurricular activities. Women can multitask, men have one-track minds. Obviously the difference isn’t so cut-and-dry, but there are distinct physiological differences in the way men and women approach their work. I know some of my male friends attack homework by going all-out on one subject for one day, while I’m able to have everything spread out on my desk and make a little headway in every subject every day. Women are more organized in school, and when kids applying to top schools are supposed to take an incredibly daunting courseload, women are better suited for the challenge.</p>
<p>I also think it is fair to say that women are more likely to be involved in school and community service organizations, while men are more likely to find their passions in an area that doesn’t shine on a college application.</p>
<p>Is there a slight disparity? There certainly might be. But it is not dramatic as some ardent feminists make it, and more than anything suggests an error in the educational system. Something similar was happening to girls around 30-35 years ago, and the system changed, and now they have soared to the top.</p>