For the C/O 2018, 17,964 females applied while only 12,467 males applied-- women make up about 60% of the total applicant pool. Now, I’m not complaining, as this yields a much higher acceptance rate for men [1,319=10.6% for men vs 1,342=7.5% for women]. I’m just curious as for why there is a vast difference in the number of male and female applicants. Anyone have any insight or “theories” as to why this is? TIA!
That’s really interesting - I didn’t realize there was that big a disparity. One explanation is Brown’s reputation as an “artsy” liberal arts institution. That seems to appeal to more women than men. For fun, I looked up Wesleyan’s common data set and saw that 59% of its applicants last year were women. It’s another school with a similar “artsy” reputation.
I think it’s roughly 57% female and 43% male that are actually attending college so the applicant numbers might just reflect the population that are looking to attend any college.
Boston University is 62% female and it is not a particularly “artsy” school.
Another one that has a bizarre breakdown. I wonder why BU and Brown attract less male applicants than say, Northeastern or UPENN?
Engineering and Business programs tend to attract more male applicants then female. Brown has a small engineering program and no business school. Also, fraternities and sports attract male applicants. Brown has a small fraternity scene and while its sports programs are improving, there is little school spirit for attending football games, etc. As noted above, Brown has a great reputation for arts (typically a more female area), and more of a typical liberal arts college feel to it.
@suzyQ7 Penn has strong pre-profesional undergrad schools ( business, engineering) and has a general competitive, pre-professional, less artsy atmosphere and reputation, which could be the reason why it attracts more males than a place like Brown.