<p>Just one thought about qualifications “at the top.” It would be my suspicion that boys with super-SATs and a somewhat lower GPA are more common than girls with the same stats.</p>
<p>The conclusion I would draw would simply be that women’s apps are compared to the apps of other women, whereas men’s apps to men’s apps, which makes sense if you want a demographic balance, which both sexes do prefer. It’s no different than the fact that someone applying from a less well-represented area of the country will have a better shot than someone applying from a denser app area.</p>
<p>It’s pretty self-explanatory. There are just more girls in college.</p>
<p>An admissions counselor at Wake Forest told us on a college tour (a few years ago) that they very intentionally try for a 50/50 ratio in enrolled students in each class and that it is harder for women to get in. They believe that 50/50 makes for an overall healthier student body for both genders. I would assume that many other colleges do the same without saying that they do.</p>
<p>I look at this as a good thing. More women are in the college applicant pool probably because more men tend to drop out or go to trade/vocational school or go into military. More opportunities for women for professional career. If men are equally prone to go to college, there will be even more competition for the female student applicants.</p>
<p>^I agree. I would prefer a gender balanced campus, too. If they are grouped separately in admissions consideration, boys to boys and girls to girls, wouldn’t it be more natural to give admit stats separately, too? Somebody posted the rankings of 20 colleges with lowest admit rates the other day. I idly plugged in gender-specific admit rates as much as I know. In a few cases, the rankings changed rather dramatically. It would certainly have changed my D’s college list had she known earlier. The same may apply to regions. It could be that in NY, NJ area more girls apply when compared with the general pool. If the admission decision is also made depending on where you are applying from, it would also be good to know; what is the admit rate for girls applying from xyz region? </p>
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<p>Corollary: Girls with uber-GPAa and somewhat lower SATs are more common than boys with the same stats.</p>
<p>Wow, the generalizations and suppositions are pouring forth here.</p>
<p>There are lots of technical schools where girls have a better shot at getting in than boys. Most of them offer all majors although they are considered predominantly STEM type schools. To name a few:</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd
MIT
Caltech
RPI
WPI
Columbia SEAS
Rose Hulman</p>
<p>I would hate to see someone not apply to a school they really love based on the fear that they will have a lower acceptance rate. I think it’s useful to be aware of the longer odds - and I believe they are real- but if it’s a school your D loves, just makes sure she shows them her own fit. Even though the rates of admission are somewhat lower, they are still admitting lots of girls of every ethnicity, etc. Just try to be the one they do. But of course, keep this in mind to soothe the pain of rejection - and love your safeties.</p>
<p>Igloo, admit rates dont really tell you much when trying to assess academic fit/ safety. Unless you know the mid-range scores/gpa for girls, how can you know where you fall?</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>annie - I agree. I would also like to see the breakdown on SAT/GPA published. The admit rate is only the first step.</p>
<p>texaspg - Funny that you brought up Caltech. If there’s misfit, that was one for my D. It couldn’t be more unfit. The same is probably true for MIT although to a lesser degree. My D happens to like femminine(?) campuses mostly. How inconvenient!</p>
<p>kathieh1-DD stopped investigating a school for that reason alone. They have a 6% OOS acceptance rate for girls. She felt that it just wasn’t worth the time and effort to make the contacts, visit, or even apply she she has other schools she likes just fine and she would receive as good of an education there. I don’t see anything wrong with that at all.</p>
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<p>Actually, without the gpa/mcat matrix of each gender (and by race/ethnicity and age-work experience), there is no way to make such a claim. (Look up Simpson’s Paradox in AP Stat.) </p>
<p>For example, the mean age of male med matriculants is one year older than female. Is that data point relevant? Who knows – perhaps males premeds are held-back in school, or perhaps on average they require an extra year of maturing/work experience…</p>
<p>^^I’d call that mature and wise.</p>
<p>“It would be my suspicion that boys with super-SATs and a somewhat lower GPA are more common than girls with the same stats.”</p>
<p>This was the case at Harvard in the late 90s, according to admissions folks there. I was a girl with this pattern, and it was memorable to them because they rarely saw it from girls.</p>
<p>Remember that most college students attend community colleges (which are usually open admission) or moderately or less selective state universities (which often admit just by GPA/rank/test-score formula). It is much less likely that any gender-balancing or other such things is going on inside those schools’ admissions offices.</p>
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<p>But one does see recommendations on these forums for piano and violin playing Asian male intended STEM majors to apply to small LACs in the northeast or south rather prestigious research universities for a better chance of acceptance. How is that different?</p>
<p>What is seen from girls is likely the opposite.</p>
<p>A little fiddling with the SAT data shows that boys outnumber girls at 1500 plus by 60-40, or 50% more. There aren’t all that many so thats only an excess of about 3600 boys. </p>
<p>But if you go to 1400 and up, you get 58-42 with about 10,700 more boys than girls.</p>
<p>1300 plus gets you about 56-44, but an excess of 19,900 boys.</p>
<p>Finally, if you measure from 1200 up, its 54-46 in favor of boys, with about 27,100 more boys than girls.</p>
<p>Its very hard for me to buy the “harder for women to get in” if its an across the board statement. It might be true from place to place, but it certainly cannot be true en mass at selective schools.</p>
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Where did you get the OOS data by gender? </p>
<p>D is not one of the uber/over achievers, but we also worry about her acceptance chances next year. Her favorite school so far has an OOS acceptance rate of 14%, but I don’t know the breakdown by gender (probably even worse). Her “unhooked regular middle class white girl” status doesn’t bode well there.</p>
<p>^^you can glean admit rate by gender from the college’s Common Data Set. Of course, not all college make their CDS publicly available.</p>
<p>xaniamom–from CC :D. I had mentioned a while back she was considering this school and someone here gave me that information. I admit I didn’t do any further research but I’m ok with that too.</p>
<p>"The same is probably true for MIT although to a lesser degree. My D happens to like femminine(?) campuses mostly. How inconvenient! "</p>
<p>I am only pointing out that some schools are being ignored because they have a high ratio of boys or the specific majors the girls are interested in are not always popular. One has to remember the ivies were all male too. At some point, it becomes - you like something you don’t get so why not take the opportunities when you are really wanted somewhere else?</p>
<p>Girls at MIT seem to be much happier than the boys there. My D was not sure about applying to MIT in September and loved CPW and now it has become a hard decision. She liked Caltech too but the kids there seem to scare everyone about how hard it is rather than welcoming new students.</p>