“… More than half of engineering bachelor’s degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology went to women in 2015, federal data shows. The same was true at Dartmouth College this year. The majority of computer science majors at California’s Harvey Mudd College are women. Here at Carnegie Mellon University, women account for nearly half of first-year computer science students — 48 percent, a school record.” …
No, that just shows the power of admissions at elite private schools.
http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/magazine/perspective-approaching-gender-parity
I should note that while the % of degrees offered to women has dipped a small amount (it was 19.9%, last year), the overall number of engineering degrees award has gone up.
Also, over 106,000 bachelor degrees where awarded in 2015, so schools like Harvey Mudd and Dartmouth are not going to do much in the way of moving that needle.
The top schools for Bachelor’s Degrees awarded to women :
- Georgia Institute of Technology 517
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology 349
- University of Michigan 342
- Purdue University 338
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 329
- Ohio State University 310
- Pennsylvania State University 302
- University of Florida 288
- Texas A&M University 286
- Cornell University 279 ...
- Auburn University 129
- Carnegie Mellon University 129
- Michigan Technological University 129
- University of Delaware 128 https://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/15EngineeringbytheNumbersPart1.pdf
In 2015, Dartmouth awarded 57 degrees. Harvey Mudd only awarded 55 engineering degree in total for both men and women.
If you want to improve gender parity, it has to start at the large public universities that graduate by far the majority of engineers.
I*
I am thrilled to see see more women in engineering/CS, but is “breaking a barrier” the right phrasing? Or is it better described as “passing a milestone”?
It should be no surprise that more than half the engineering bachelors degrees went to women, if the school admitted them in those numbers in the first place with the intent to major in engineering/CS.
What was the admit rate was for female engineering/CS applicants v male engineering/CS applicants? Are these young women breaking a barrier if they are simply receiving preferential admission treatment?
MIT’s admission policy is to admit about equal numbers of men and women. Since MIT is a science and engineering school, it would be more surprising if half the engineering degrees DIDN’T go to women.
Looking at MIT:
Keep in mind that ALL of the applicants have great stats, MIT doesn’t have to sacrifice academic ability to ensure a 50/50 mix in admission. In fact, the male graduation rate is 90%, while the female graduation rate is 95% (follows the national trend of females being more likely to graduate from college than males).
The female admit rate is more than double the male admit rate. I wonder if there’s grounds for gender discrimination.
^^You can’t MAKE more women apply, @PrimeMeridian . How on earth you can extrapolate the original application number to infer that MIT is somehow discriminating against men is laughable.
But is it legal to have gender quotas?
There are several threads on this site that debate the male to female ratios at MIT (as there probably are for other schools also). Some of the key points are that admit rates do not reflect the qualification of the applicants and the female applicants tend to be at the higher end of the scale.
MIT is a private institution and as such has much more leeway to shape admissions to their liking. Women can be given boost in their admissions algorithm, just like any other under represented minority. When states outlaw quota based admissions, it only applies to state funded institutions.
" female applicants tend to be at the higher end of the scale." - That has been my impression too.
The tidbit above with higher graduation rate seems to support that.
@PrimeMeridian “The female admit rate is more than double the male admit rate. I wonder if there’s grounds for gender discrimination.”
I don’t think you would be able to show gender discrimination.
- While women are less likely to apply to MIT, the female applicants tend to be better qualified.
- Female admits average higher grades and test scores than the men.
- Female enrollees have better grades at MIT.
Also, why don’t we hear about this when Brown admits men at a much higher rate?
LaTech admits way more men than women into engineering, but of the around 10 “grand challenge scholars” that LaTech engineering has had, half or more than half of them have been women. Interesting fact that speaks to the success that women engineers can have, but there’s still less of them around.