I understand why the most prestigious universities were allowed to become co-ed, but why has almost every men’s college (aside from Morehouse) gone co-ed, especially when there are plenty of Women’s colleges?
I’m a senior at an all-boys high school, looking at colleges and finding that I don’t have any other option than going to a co-ed school. It’s not a tragedy for me, but I would’ve preferred to have gone to a men’s school.
My mistake, Hampden-Sydney College and Wabash College are not (yet) co-ed, making them the only men’s colleges in the United States that aren’t HBCUs, a Priests’ seminaries or Jewish Yeshivas.
Definitely applying to Hampden-Sydney and Wabash, but still…
Morehouse, Wabash, St John’s in Minnesota are men’s colleges. You can apply to all three.
Some Universities, especially religious Universities, have parietals and single sex dorms
(Notre dame is one, BYU also). I know Hendrix does have a men’s dorm even though it’s not religious.
More single sex dorms are for women only than men only. Most freshman dorms are coed, by floor, by wing, or by room, many with coed or gender neutral bathrooms.
If that matters to you, email eaxh college you’re thinking of to see whether they offer single sex dorms or floors and/or bathrooms for men.
One reason is that men benefit from advantages women don’t, so they don’t need colleges designed to help in their empowerment.
Another reason might be that more men enjoy women’s company (or need) than the reverse, so that demand for men’s colleges dropped when coed colleges started, whereas demand for women’s colleges still exists.
I was going to mention Deep Springs as being all male, but their website says they are accepting applications from women for entering Fall 2018.
^ however it’ll likely still be almost all male still, so that’s a good idea too! 
Also, HBCUs are open to all ethnicities so you can definitely apply there. You only need to have an interest/appreciation for the African American experience and its place in American history and current culture.
So, you can add Deep Springs, St John’s MN (NOT a seminary), and Morehouse to Wabash and HSC.
Plus Hendrix and some colleges that have single sex dorms for men. That’s six colleges at least. Then, add the tech schools such as Rose Hulman, CAL Poly SLO, Embry Riddle, South Dakota Tech, RPI, Missouri Rolla (MUST)… where there are way more men than women and you should reach 10 all male or mostly male schools + a few more with single sex dorms for men.
My guess is there’s almost no demand among straight men to attend an all male college, excepting the extremely religious. A secondary reason is some of the all women’s colleges that remain are highly prestigious, and may be able to attract some applicants, in spite of and not because of their single sex status. Wabash doesn’t have the prestige of Barnard.
Why wouldn’t Deep Springs end up with some women? And yes, I am aware of their model. That seems presumptive and a tad misogynistic to assume women won’t want to attend there.
Just spitballing: If it’s the first year women are allowed to apply, a) it might take time to get the word out to the women who would be interested in going (see how people still say Princeton doesn’t take transfers despite that changing this year) and b) joining a community that is currently 100% not like you might be a deterrent for a while.
I will speculate…that after centuries of being dismissed for wanting to obtain an education, when women were finally given fairly open access to college in the late 1940’s they started to attend, in droves, single sex men’s colleges began to loose their appeal and now as there are more women in college than men, single sex male schools were unable to compete for the applicant pool and had to open their doors to the opposite sex simply to stay afloat.
Some of the decisions to go coed in the early '70’s were driven by projected decline in college-age student population. Going coed doubled the applicant pool immediately. Many subsequent decisions were driven at least in part by economic reasons.
There are still schools that are 75-80 percent male. Many engineering schools, the service academies, schools as mentioned above that are transitioning. What are you looking for in an all male school?
@intparent: since the decision is new, few guidance counselors are aware if it, and since the college is not necessarily well-known in the first place, it’ll take time to get the word out. In addition, since all admissions are decided by current students, who are all male, and we know how that used to work in hiring, we can expect some time before there’s an equal number of men and women at Deep Springs.
My comment wasn’t related to women not being interested in the school’s model.
OP, what is it about going to an all-male school that appeals to you?
@citymama9 Well, that’s hard to actually quantify. I feel more comfortable in all male environments, I get along and work much better with men, and being in an environment without women (especially a residential environment) avoids a lot of distraction and drama. Being in a masculine setting is important for men to develop an authentic sense of self, and the femininity that has intertwined itself in Western society for the last century or so greatly inhibits that.
I’d like to recommend the works of Robert Bly, particularly his book Iron John. Here’s his Wikipedia page — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bly
Also, @twoinanddone while STEM departments may be largely male (though even that is changing) I’m planning on a humanities major.
As for Deep Springs, that adds another question. Does anyone know if there’s any talk of Hampton-Sydney or Wabash going co-ed? I wouldn’t want to be at either college just to find out that next semester they’re changing one of the main reasons I applied in the first place, especially when there are higher ranked schools that I could’ve gone to but didn’t because I preferred to go to an all-men’s college.
You might want to examine this belief system before you join a workplace with women.
What does that even MEAN?
@bodangles No, but thanks. I’ve never said that I can’t function around women. There’s a difference between going to work and going home, and spending years in a residential living situation, where you have more than “strictly business” interactions with the people around you. However, your ire at my wholly introspective comment (as if it was an attack on anyone) makes my point — it’s somehow offensive for a man to want to be around other men, but if a woman wants to be around women — as is her right — it’s no problem at all.
I expressed no “ire” in my comment, and your attitude of victimhood will not serve you well in the future.
@MaineLonghorn It means that masculinity is no longer socially acceptable, and treated like a character flaw, while femininity is treated like the normal, default way of being for 100% of the population, instead of the 50% it actually belongs to.