<p>My oldest's LAC has run about 60-40 female-male in recent years. This year's freshman class is 75% female! I'm thinking the admissions office is not too happy. Neither are the freshman women!</p>
<p>Young men of all races are more likely than are females to drop out of high school and college and to not want to go to college. </p>
<p>This is in part because there are relatively high paying (considering their lack of a college degree) jobs for high school grads that males are more likely to be interested in than are females. This includes jobs in the computer field.</p>
<p>Guys are also more likely than are women to end up in the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>The disparity in numbers isn't just at LACs, it's at all institutions of higher education except technology colleges, where the numbers are skewed toward guys.</p>
<p>For this reason, females are at an advantage when applying to tech colleges and schools, and males are at an advantage when applying to other institutions of higher education. That translates to easier admission policies and preference for things such as merit aid. This is true across racial groups including white males getting a preference when it comes to LACs. Of course, URM males are at even more of an advantage since they are even more scarce.</p>
<p>Here's an article on the subject:
"News
Dearth of Men Felt at Colleges Across the Country
Gender Gap Particularly Apparent Among Minority Groups at UC Berkeley</p>
<p>BY Shadi Rahimi
Contribution Writer
Wednesday, November*19, 2003</p>
<p>Berkeley High School senior Chris Carlisle isnt planning to apply to UC Berkeley this year. In fact, hes not sending any applications to college. </p>
<p>I want to be a firefighter, Carlisle says. I just aint thought about college. </p>
<p>Carlisles decision reflects a growing national trendfewer men are choosing to go to college, and now make up just under 44 percent of students enrolled in degree-granting institutions across the country. </p>
<p>With this phenomenon, UC Berkeleys gender gap has reversed. At 54 percent of the college-age student body, women outnumber men in every ethnic group except among whites. </p>
<p>Its pretty cool, says junior sociology major Maritza Barajas. Before, women experienced so many restrictions when it came to higher education. Now were less dependent on men economically. </p>
<p>But among minorities, the gap is extreme. Of about 1,200 black students on campus this fall, nearly 800 are women. Asian-American females outnumber Asian-American males by more than 1,000. "
<a href="http://www.dailycal.org/particle.php?id=13577%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailycal.org/particle.php?id=13577</a></p>
<p>My S1 noted the same this summer in his summer program. A number of cute junior girls had never been on a single date in college.</p>
<p>This isn't good, girls....</p>
<p>Most guys I know prefer bigger schools than lacs with big-time college sports.
My3girls, which lac are you talking about? Sounds like an opportunity for some guys to get into the school. How do they fill up their men's sports teams?</p>
<p>my3girls:</p>
<p>I second dstark's question? Sounds like my S should add to his list.</p>
<p>I think this trend has shown that when higher education finally became accessible to all groups of people, men found out that perhaps we dont measure up well with women. The competition has become so intense; we finally decided not to show up.</p>
<p>Virtually all LACs have trouble attracting guys. Take your pick. </p>
<p>The problem is that most guys aren't interested in LACs. If you're fortunate to have a guy who is, then they have a better chance of being accepted and of getting merit aid (if the college offers it) than would a female with a similar background.</p>
<p>Northstarmom is right, it's not just this one school. This is the first year they have gone under 37% male in the last 6 years (that's all I have data on). I don't want to list the name publically to discourage anyone from applying. I assume this year's class yield just came out a little different than they expected.</p>
<p>I will say this -- it's in the 50-100 rank range and I imagine most of those struggle with the ratio more than the top 10-15 do.</p>
<p>Except Hampden-Sydney and Wabash, of course :)</p>
<p>I think LACs also appeal to women more than men for several reasons. Here are a couple of them:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many LACs do not have business and engineering schools and I think business and engineering majors appeal to many young men. </p></li>
<li><p>I think that the many men find high profile teams at big schools attractive.</p></li>
</ol>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>The problem is that most guys aren't interested in LACs.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Now that you mention it there may be something to this. Since it is all the rage these days to ascibe genders to things and processes (Mars and Venus, masculine knowedge and feminine knowledge, etc), I can see that LACs offer a more "feminine" educational experience. </p>
<p>LACs are supposed to be about lots of close, personal attention from sensitive and caring professors who lead you to think deep thoughts. Looking at the view book you can practically smell the herbal tea being brewed and served. Venus. </p>
<p>On the other hand, at Big State U. an important part of the college experience is supposed to be Booze, Babes, and painting your face in the school colors and taking your shirt off at the big football game. Mars.</p>
<p>Not that I subscribe to this, but it has been increasingly discussed on the conservative talk shows that the reason for the falling number of men applying to college is the "feminization" of America and the trend to to try and suppress the natural instincts of boys. This is best illustrated in the book "The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men." I haven't read it, nor am I likely to read it, but I thought I would mention it.</p>
<p>One wonders, however, what the numbers are broken down by ethnic group and economic class. My guess is that rising minority participation in college is over-represented by women. Minority males may often be under a great deal of pressure early on to engage in activities that do not necessarily lead to college. No firm data on hand, just a hunch. And if so, then the national overall numbers may be skewed as a result. </p>
<p>A side note: I tried to get my S to look into Wells, which went co-ed this year. I asked what could be better than to be surrounded by women at a good college, and be able to take just about any class at Cornell? I told him that would have been MY clear choice. Alas, he was not interested, I guess times HAVE changed.</p>
<p>it does seem silly but, consistent with the posts above, alot of guys seemingly will pick schools based on such (non)issues as the school's football team, etc. </p>
<p>I also think (we) guys think a bigger school means more "action" in every sense. I also think there is a grotesque misconception with many people (regardless of gender, age, etc.) that LAC are somehow lacking in the quality of education, prestige power and that the typical LAC is simply full of tree hugging/flower picking poetry readers.</p>
<p>It is truly a shame. IMO the best undergrad education and experience for most anyone can be found at MANY LAC.</p>
<p>Here's a quote:</p>
<ul>
<li>Males have a higher high school dropout rate than females (13% to 10%), and lag behind females in extracurricular participation, including school government, literary activities and the performing arts.8 </li>
</ul>
<p>Men are the minority (44%) of students enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate institutions and, as a group lag behind women in degree attainment at the associate (39%), bachelor (44%) and masters (44%) levels. Although white males and females attend college in fairly equal proportions, African-American and Hispanic males are particularly under-represented at all educational levels. <a href="http://www.american.edu/sadker/thereportcard.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.american.edu/sadker/thereportcard.htm</a></p>
<p>Another:
"A 1999 U.S. News and World Report article reported that, at an increasing rate, college-student populations in all types of postsecondary institutions have higher proportions of women, while young men are tending toward lucrative early employment and economic independence. The article points out that the process begins in high school where girls are concentrating on college preparation and boys are being recruited by high-technology companies.* </p>
<p>Kleinfeld (1998, p. 29) also emphasized that at the postsecondary level " ...a gender gap exists and is increasing. But this gender gap clearly favors females. Women have become the majority of college students - especially in the African-American population - and women earn the majority of bachelor's and master's degrees."...</p>
<p>In terms of advanced college degrees, more women than men are graduating from college and going on to get master's degrees (Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac Issue, 1997). "In 1995,...women won 55 percent of the bachelor's degrees and 55 percent of the master's degrees. Among African-Americans, the gender gap in favor of females is far larger. In 1995, African-American men won only 36 percent of bachelor's degrees and only 34 percent of master's degrees....<a href="http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/boys1.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/boys1.html</a></p>
<p>I know a guy who told me very proudly that you won't find an American Literature major where he goes to school. It was a 4 year college that also provides vocational training (ie: computers, plumbing).</p>
<p>if we search back to a thread Carolyn started (I think), we'll find that the majority of top (non-specialized) LAC's are of the yin variety, whereas their are fewer of the yang variety that is more attactive to the typical xy chromosome.</p>
<p>"
At colleges across the country, the gender imbalance has been growing steadily for decades as women continue to outpace men in the pursuit of higher education.</p>
<p>Teenage girls typically have better grades than their male counterparts, but college admissions officers say they can't stand idly by and watch the schools become mostly female bastions. And so, colleges are taking steps to reverse the trend - reaching out to high school boys through direct marketing and phone calls from recruiters....</p>
<p>A few years ago, Wake Forest University in North Carolina began admitting more men to correct the gender imbalance, even though fewer males had applied. ...the University of Delaware says it sometimes lowers its expectations for promising boys who faltered in the ninth and 10th grades. ...</p>
<p>"Sandy Baum, a professor of economics at Skidmore College...recently co-authored a study of admissions practices as they relate to gender at 13 liberal arts schools across the country.</p>
<p>...the study found that schools that were once all-women and have gone coed were more likely to favor male applicants. As the percentage of women at colleges continues to rise, Baum said, other schools might follow suit....</p>
<p>Not all colleges have more women....most of the Ivy League schools still enroll more men....</p>
<p>Schools that emphasize engineering and the sciences still tend to have significantly more Y chromosomes, too. ...</p>
<p>But Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.... found that between 1975 and 2001, the number of bachelor's degrees earned by men increased by 5 percent. In the same period, the number of bachelor's degrees earned by women increased by 70 percent."
<a href="http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0124menoutreach-ON.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0124menoutreach-ON.html</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, at Big State U. an important part of the college experience is supposed to be Booze, Babes, and painting your face in the school colors and taking your shirt off at the big football game. Mars.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I couldn't have said it better myself. I as a male never considered for a millisecond to go to some small LAC. For one, I love college football and basketball, and no LAC is above D-3. For two, guys are generally cheap, and LACs are drastically more expensive than State Universities. Finally, most in my deomgraphic have never even heard of LACs. I never heard of schools like Colby, Bates, Grinnell, and MacAlester until I found this message board.</p>
<p>
[quote]
and no LAC is above D-3
[/quote]
joev, what in the world are you talking about? Look at the most recent Division I-AA Football poll. Furman is #2. William and Mary (much more of an LAC than a National University) is #13. Wofford is #22. Hofstra is #24. Lafayette received some votes. All of the schools above play Division I basketball, as does Davidson.</p>
<p>Which is the better predictor of success in the business world, achievement in sports or achievement in academics? Competitiveness, and team work are good for sports and business.</p>