<p>Brown’s applicant group was 61% female, and only 39% male this year. Will it follow the lead of certain smaller LAC’s and grant affirmative action to males this year in order to reduce the imbalance?</p>
<p>A candid OP-ED piece in the NY Times today by the Director of Admissions at Kenyon acknowledges existence of such a practice, adopted because schools fear a “tipping point” (discerned by educational consultants), who say that a school that is 60% or more female is less attractive to both sexes.</p>
<p>i hope not! sorry ladies. but lets be reasonable, 60-40 will not make such a huge difference in admissions if they seek a reasonable 53-47 or something like that. thats not such a huge difference. im not so good at math, but what is that liek a 5% greater chance or so for boys? maybe less. good question tho, thanks for bringing it up byerly</p>
<p>Schools have been doing this for quite awhile in varying degrees, according to my son's hs counselors. They are quite open about it.
They also point out schools where the male to female ratio goes the other way, such as schools like Mudd, Claremont, & Dartmouth.
According to them,Brown has been slightly favoring boys for several years.(accepting with slightly less impressive apps.) I don't see anything wrong with it. At a school like Brown, dropping a grade point or two doesn't mean the boy can't do the work. Diversity comes in many forms.</p>
<p>yeait seems that the very liberal-minded schools give boysw an extra push while the "old boys network" schools (outdoorsy i guess, i dunno) give girls a push.</p>
<p>like TOTAL hypocrites! myself included. but it REALLY is a different situation lets not kid ourselves. maybe its the same in principle, but the acceptance rates for white boys vs. white girls will not be NEARLY as disparate as those of white boys and URMs...lets not turn this into an AA thing though, im sick of those</p>
<p>"Let me tell y'all what its like, being male, middle class and white
Life's a b*tch. If you don't believe,
Listen up to my new cd.
Sham on!"</p>
<p>This does not necessarily represent my views on my race, and this isn't meant to spark debate, but I thought I'd plug the best piano pop player in the world. Sham on!</p>
<p>Brown has been trending female in the applicant group for 5 or 6 years now, but the 61-39 ratio this year is a bit startling, and something of a wake-up call.</p>
<p>Brown's gender imbalance in favor of females is now similar to MIT's in favor of males.</p>
<p>It is likely that Brown's status as the "most female" of the Ivies reflects, generally, its relative lack of emphasis on the sciences compared to its peers, and, perhaps the reputation for being "softer" and less competitive, with the "no-grades" thing.</p>
<p>I think more than the "no grades" thing, it's the open curriculum and maybe the more liberal seeming environment. I though they were pretty strong in the sciences and had a lot of pre-meds, no?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any basis as to whether male/female apps are stronger? Is it fair to conclude that if the difference is less disparate than 61:39 that some sort of affirmative action came into play?</p>
<p>I'm not sure if I'm playing devil's advocate, but I think mostly I'm just curious. :)</p>
<p>im pretty sure female apps are stronger. maybe not at a top school like brown i dont know, but at least from my experience, the girls i know are much more studious, get better grades, do more ecs, than boys i know. im sure they put more time into their applications as well.</p>
<p>david218, I would tend to agree with you. Meaning that I am pretty sure some sort of affirmative action will be in place, but it probably won't be obvious enough that anyone will be able to whine about it.</p>
<p>yea. its not like vassar which is 60-40 ADMITTED. they need to work to get 60-40, so there is definitely some affirmative action there. starting with 60-40 and getting to 54-46 or something like that doesnt take too much effort</p>