Colleges' gender gap
LA Times - McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
Issue date: 1/28/10 Section: Op/Ed
Who's smarter, men or women? It's a topic of common - and often comic - musings, but it has also become a serious policy issue for colleges and this nation's students.
After 17 years of concentrated effort to raise the academic achievement of girls, who in previous decades had often received less attention in the classroom and been steered away from college-prep courses, the nation can brag that female students have progressed tremendously. Though still underrepresented in calculus and other advanced-level science and math courses in high school, women now outnumber men applying to and graduating from college - so much so that it appears some colleges are giving male applicants an admissions boost. As a result, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is examining whether colleges are engaging in widespread discrimination against women in an effort to balance their male and female populations.
Consider some of the numbers at leading schools: At Vassar College in New York State, a formerly all-women's college that is still 60 percent female, more than two-thirds of the applicants last year were women. The college accepted 35 percent of the men who applied, compared with 20 percent of the women. In California, elite Pomona College accepted 21 percent of male applicants for this year's freshman class, but only 13 percent of female applicants. At Virginia's College of William & Mary, 7,652 women applied for this year's freshman class, compared with 4,457 male applicants. Yet the numbers of each who gained admittance were nearly the same. That's because the college accepted 45 percent of the men and only 27 percent of the women.
A 2007 analysis by U.S. News & World Report, based on the data sent by colleges for the magazine's annual rankings, found that the admissions rate for women averaged 13 percentage points lower than that for men. But percentages don't tell the whole story. It could be that the men were stronger candidates, or they might have applied in areas of engineering and science where women's numbers are still lower. But such justifications, even if true, are unlikely to fully explain these numbers. At schools such as the University of California, where admissions rely overwhelmingly on statistical measures of academic achievement such as grades and test scores, the disparities don't appear. Far more women than men applied to UCLA - the UC's most selective campus - last year. The university accepted about the same percentage of each, with a slight edge to the women. As a result, the freshman class has close to 800 more women than men.
After 17 years of concentrated effort to raise the academic achievement of girls, who in previous decades had often received less attention in the classroom and been steered away from college-prep courses, the nation can brag that female students have progressed tremendously. Though still underrepresented in calculus and other advanced-level science and math courses in high school, women now outnumber men applying to and graduating from college - so much so that it appears some colleges are giving male applicants an admissions boost. As a result, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is examining whether colleges are engaging in widespread discrimination against women in an effort to balance their male and female populations.
Consider some of the numbers at leading schools: At Vassar College in New York State, a formerly all-women's college that is still 60 percent female, more than two-thirds of the applicants last year were women. The college accepted 35 percent of the men who applied, compared with 20 percent of the women. In California, elite Pomona College accepted 21 percent of male applicants for this year's freshman class, but only 13 percent of female applicants. At Virginia's College of William & Mary, 7,652 women applied for this year's freshman class, compared with 4,457 male applicants. Yet the numbers of each who gained admittance were nearly the same. That's because the college accepted 45 percent of the men and only 27 percent of the women.
A 2007 analysis by U.S. News & World Report, based on the data sent by colleges for the magazine's annual rankings, found that the admissions rate for women averaged 13 percentage points lower than that for men. But percentages don't tell the whole story. It could be that the men were stronger candidates, or they might have applied in areas of engineering and science where women's numbers are still lower. But such justifications, even if true, are unlikely to fully explain these numbers. At schools such as the University of California, where admissions rely overwhelmingly on statistical measures of academic achievement such as grades and test scores, the disparities don't appear. Far more women than men applied to UCLA - the UC's most selective campus - last year. The university accepted about the same percentage of each, with a slight edge to the women. As a result, the freshman class has close to 800 more women than men.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Terrence S. Kiolbassa
posted 1/29/10 @ 6:11 AM EST
The real important issue is who is going to see that the kids get educated.
What I wan to see is simple. If some guy makes a woman pregnant amd she does not have a college education. (Continued…)
seniorseahawk
posted 2/10/10 @ 12:36 PM EST
I personally think that the most qualified individuals should get in, regardless of race, gender, or national origin. However, it becomes hard to determine "most qualified". (Continued…)
Post a Comment