What do you feel about gender bias?.. can we call it sexism?

Applying to College
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<p>So we all know about affirmative action and how it lowers the standards for URMs and raises them for Asians, and Caucasian to a lesser extent... </p>

<p>What do you feel about this article?</p>

<p>Male Admit Rate Higher at Many Schools </p>

<p>By Victoria Fosdal
Special to The Hoya
Friday, October 5, 2007 </p>

<p>The angst-ridden college admissions season is well underway, and female applicants face even greater uncertainty than their male counterparts.</p>

<p>As women continue to enroll at higher rates than men, some colleges have begun to alter admission rates for both men and women. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2006, women made up 56 percent of the total undergraduate students in the United States.</p>

<p>“In my experience, I have seen instances where the admissions bar is set a little lower for boys, compared to girls,” said Bari Norman, an independent college counselor and former admissions officer at Barnard College. </p>

<p>“With somewhat relaxed admissions standards, a reach school may very well become their reality,” Norman said on the increasing opportunities for males.</p>

<p>U.S. News and World Report published a list this past summer labeling 18 schools “Girls Need Not Apply.” The magazine selected these colleges, which include the University of Richmond, Boston College and Fordham University, for their increasing disparity between male and female admissions over the past 10 years. </p>

<p>Number five on the list, The College of William and Mary, has an 11 percent lower acceptance rate for women, yet their student body is still 57 percent female...."
<a href="http://www.thehoya.com/news/100507/news6.cfm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thehoya.com/news/100507/news6.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I don’t think this is sexism, any more than a desire to maintain ethnic diversity is racism. To put it another way, if it’s not sexism for MIT to give an admissions advantage to women to equalize the balance between genders, it’s not sexism for a school with more female applicants to do the same.</p>

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<p>The female applicant pool at MIT, while quite a bit smaller than the male applicant pool, is also more qualified as a group. That would be why the admit rate is higher for women at MIT. Don’t believe me? Ask an MIT admissions officer. I think one of my favorite statistics there was about seven times as many male as female applicants being in the bottom 60% of their high school class.</p>

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<p>but that might be because more men apply, not because women are better. i mean, if 7,000 men apply and 1,000 women do, 7 men could be in the bottom 60 while 1 woman had the same. says nothing about talent of the overall pool.</p>

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<p>If MIT is giving female applicants an advantage, that IS sexism and did I ever say I supported it?</p>

<p>But yes, MIT did say that it’s female applicants are overall better qualified. Dif. is, schools that have a higher male admit rate ALSO say that female applicants are overall better qualified, even AFTER the effects of a bigger female pool. I do think we should eliminate all gender discrimination; apparently there is more discrimination against females than males though.</p>

<p>I think that in a couple of decades this will be one of the things we look back on and say, “I can’t believe people back then believed something as unfair as THAT.” Like slavery. Okay, this is not one tenth as terrible as slavery, but then decent people believed in it too back when it was popular.</p>

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<p>Gender diveristy is one of few forms of diversity I actually agree with.
Yes, it is discrimination, but colleges and universities must try their best to provide a healthy social atmosphere for students.
And most people will agree that having a healthy guy/girl ratio is key to that, simply because of the way the biology works. There will be serious problems with dating if it is 80% girls and 20% guys, or vice versa. How many students would be well served by attending school on such a dysfunctional campus?</p>

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<p>That’s bull…boys score higher on the SAT than girls. If anything, boys should have higher standards.</p>

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<p>I would argue that we are in an era where there is discrimination in favor of certain groups, and less discrimination against groups. Thus, in this example, the schools are not trying to lessen the number of females because they dislike or devalue them, but are rather trying to increase the number of males to achieve balance. Similarly, a school that discriminates in favor of underrepresented minorities is not doing so because it dislikes whites. Of course, if one is on the losing end of such an arrangement, this difference may not make much difference.</p>

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<p>hmm i dont know why some people arent more upset over this. You are 10 times more likely to be rejected “as a result of” gender discrimination than of racial discrimination…</p>

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<p>If the application process were fair, gender and race would not be put into consideration. period.</p>

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<p>I wish I was applying to my reach school as an application without a race or gender. As a white female, I have a small chance of getting into my reach school. As a male or minority, I would literally be a walk-on. The female acceptance rate is 25% lower.</p>

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<p>The problem is that the type of college education can arguably affect your salary and job options for the rest of your life. ARGUABLY, an Ivy education <em>can</em> put you into a totally different league. And there may be girls who are being denied this opportunity for the sake of “dating balance,” in a time when we are still fighting the salary gap between men and women. </p>

<p>sup: Yes, boys’ SATs are on average higher. But the boys applying to the top colleges have on average the same SATs, and LOWER grades, which are universally the most important factor. Girls SAT scores are lower because a larger percentage of girls take the test, bringing the average down; the boys in the high school who don’t do as well generally just drop out or opt out of college, in my experience.</p>

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<p>No, it is not sexism. Who wants to go to a completely gender-lopsided school? It is the school’s duty to keep it balanced.</p>

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<p>It’s certainly not sexism. This has nothing to do with women’s rights or anthing close to that.</p>

<p>Women usually have an easier time in admissions than men if they apply to a field that is looking for women > men, but that’s not sexist against men, its simple diversity. (Ex. RPI has really lax admissions for women and so does most engineering schools). The same can be said when too many women apply than men, even though its rare that its so large a difference that it matters (except in cases when single-ed schools switch to coed, but then you have to realize the point is to get more of the opposite gender.)</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong w/ it at all in my opinion.</p>

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<p>Seriously men, grow some balls and do some study. Since when did the word merit become everyone’s rejected ■■■■■■■?</p>

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<p>So i would assume that those who don’t think that this is sexism also do not believe that AA is racism?</p>

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<p>i mean i guess this sexism/racism depends on how you define these words.</p>

<p>for me, racism and sexism would involve stereotyping and/or belief in the superiority or inferiority of certain groups. so personally i dont think balancing gender ratios amounts to sexism, and dont think AA amounts to racism either.</p>

<p>… but I think both amount to discrimination. the difference between AA and gender-equity efforts, however, is that AA’s objective, a variety of different skin colors on campus, has no proven benefits, whereas I think the benefits of gender-equity are fairly obvious- and necessary in order for a campus to have a healthy social atmosphere.</p>

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<p>They need to maintain schools where people actually want to go.</p>

<p>Colleges are corporations, too.
And who would want to attend someplace with only 15% of the population as female? Or the reverse?</p>

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<p>I’m not discounting the validity of people’s points here, but how has nobody commented on the hilarity of this?</p>

<p>““In my experience, I have seen instances where the admissions bar is set a little lower for boys, compared to girls,” said Bari Norman, an independent college counselor and former admissions officer at Barnard College.”</p>

<p>Yes, because an adcom at Barnard sure had to raise that admissions bar for men…</p>

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<p>Those people definitely exist. How do you think men-only/women-only colleges stay in business?</p>