Discrimination in admissions: fact or fiction?

As seniors frantically flesh out their extra-curricular brag sheets and beg for last-minute teacher recommendations, the question remains: “Will they pick me?” Yet, no matter how much students wring their hands, the decision is in the hands of a few college admissions officers. We expect these admissions officers to treat us equally and review our applications without bias. However, this expectation, especially for girls, might be uncertain if we believe recent news regarding gender in admissions. U.S. News and World Report, USA Today, and The New York Times have reported that there are more girls applying to college. According to these reports, in order to keep a 50-50 ratio between boys and girls, colleges have been admitting under-qualified boys. This has caused many breakdowns on the girl side of this equation and many high fives on the boy side.

I was devastated to learn that I would have to achieve at an even higher level if I was going to stay competitive for admission. Still in my freak-out stage, I tried to find out what gender in admissions was all about. I first turned to several deans of admission from both private and public institutions. All of the colleges that replied said that they did not use gender as a factor in admission.

“Just as we do not consider race in the admission process, we do not consider gender,” stated Janice Finney of Florida State University.

“I know of only one private institution on the East Coast that is modifying its admission criteria to balance out the male female ratio,” replied Blake Vawter of Oregon State University.

“Having spent time on the other side of the desk as a college counselor, I’m well aware that there are a number of colleges/universities where young men are somewhat scarce,” replied Amin Abdul-Malik of Wesleyan University. Some colleges do seem to be struggling with a female-dominated student body, and the colleges that actively balance the gender ratio of their schools are few and far between.

In the recently published reports, only five colleges (Northwestern, William and Mary, Boston College, Pomona, and Tufts) were specifically cited as consciously admitting a greater percentage of men.

Contrary to facts reported, my research shows that most schools do not admit a higher percentage of males. Out of the numerous small liberal arts colleges, public universities, and private universities investigated, using information from the college data sets available on most institutions’ websites, I determined that most colleges had an almost equal percentage of males and females admitted. Interestingly, all of the five colleges mentioned above did not allow access to their common data sets or had an incomplete common data sets on their website. 

Previous reports note that there are more girls applying to college. What these articles fail to mention, however, is that the rate of boys applying to these schools is also increasing and at about the same rate.

Cornell University, for example, has seen a 21 percent increase in male applicants and a 19 percent increase in female applicants in only six years.  Although admit rates at the university have dwindled from 33 percent for both sexes (27 percent for males and 28 percent for females) over six years, the ratio at which the rates have decreased is about equal for both sexes, as it is at most colleges. Discovering this was a relief, but also a disturbance. Why had this story permeated the press for the last few months? A College Board-funded attempt to sell more SAT prep books? A backlash against the progress women have made in higher education? Unlikely, but, regardless of the answer, college-bound girls may finally relax.

3 Responses

1. 7:47 AM on December 15th, 2006deshawn freemen:

   shady

2. 9:36 AM on December 15th, 20061234567890$$$$$:

   scandulous!!!

3. 8:54 PM on December 17th, 2006Lee:

   Engineering schools are still actively looking for women, I can tell you that. My class has three women in computer engineering, out of probably thirty or forty students total. I can promise you I didn’t get in on grades alone.

   The thing is, look at which gender graduates in higher numbers. Fewer men may be applying to college overall, or getting in, but more of them are graduating, if I remember correctly. Admissions stats are not all they’re cracked up to be; you have to look at what happens at the end of four or five years in college.

   Oh, by the way, you might want to make sure that your plurals and singulars agree.

Leave a Comment

All comments are moderated. If your comment contains profanity or libelous content, please don't waste our time.