Male/female LAC acceptance rate differentials

Keilexandra · 10-23-2009, 10:16 PM

Data compiled using 2008-09 CDS, except DePauw which was 2009-10 CDS. Ranking is from the current (2010?) USNWR. I unfortunately don't know enough statistics to do anything other than a simple differential calculation. The results here are rather interesting, though. I will point out selected points in the next post.

Code:

Rank	School		Coed-AR	M-AR	F-AR	F-M Diff
1	Williams	17.0%	17.4%	16.6%	-0.8%
2	Amherst	        14.8%	16.0%	13.8%	-2.2%
3	Swarthmore	15.7%	18.8%	13.7%	-5.1%
4	Middlebury	16.8%	20.3%	14.4%	-5.9%
4	Wellesley	36.0%	0.0%	36.0%	36.0%
6	Bowdoin	        18.6%	20.5%	16.9%	-3.6%
6	Pomona	        15.6%	20.3%	12.7%	-7.6%
8	Carleton	27.5%	29.3%	26.0%	-3.3%
8	Davidson	25.7%	28.0%	23.7%	-4.3%
10	Haverford	27.0%	27.1%	26.9%	-0.2%
11	CMC	        19.1%	22.2%	21.4%	-0.8%
11	Vassar	        25.0%	n/a	n/a	n/a
13	Wesleyan	27.2%	30.4%	25.0%	-5.4%
14	Grinnell	43.0%	40.8%	44.9%	4.1%
14	Harvey Mudd	31.1%	29.7%	53.1%	23.4%
14	West Point	15.7%	16.6%	12.0%	-4.6%
14	W&L        	16.8%	18.7%	15.2%	-3.5%
18	Smith	        47.7%	0.0%	44.7%	44.7%
19	Colgate	        23.9%	24.1%	23.8%	-0.3%
19	Naval Academy	13.9%	n/a	n/a	n/a
21	Hamilton	28.1%	27.2%	28.8%	1.6%
22	Colby	        30.9%	29.5%	32.1%	2.6%
22	Oberlin	        32.7%	33.3%	32.2%	-1.1%
24	Colorado	26.0%	23.9%	27.8%	3.9%
25	Bates	        29.2%	30.3%	28.3%	-2.0%
25	Bryn Mawr	48.8%	0.0%	48.8%	48.8%
25	Mt. Holyoke	52.6%	0.0%	52.6%	52.6%
25	Scripps	        43.4%	0.0%	43.4%	43.4%
29	Macalester	41.1%	41.0%	41.3%	0.3%
30	Barnard	        28.5%	0.0%	28.5%	28.5%
30	Bucknell	29.9%	27.8%	32.0%	4.2%
30	Richmond	31.7%	32.1%	31.4%	-0.7%
33	Kenyon	        31.3%	34.4%	29.0%	-5.4%
33	Occidental	39.4%	n/a	n/a	n/a
35	Lafayette	37.2%	n/a	n/a	n/a
36	Holy Cross	33.8%	33.6%	33.9%	0.3%
36	Sewanee	        64.0%	61.5%	66.5%	5.0%
36	Trinity (CT)	41.7%	39.1%	44.0%	4.9%
36	Whitman	        45.8%	46.0%	45.6%	-0.4%
40	Bard	        25.2%	n/a	n/a	n/a
40	Furman        	57.3%	58.0%	56.7%	-1.3%
42	Connecticut	36.6%	n/a	n/a	n/a
43	DePauw        	64.6%	61.7%	70.0%	8.3%
43	F&M	        35.9%	34.6%	37.0%	2.4%
43	Union	        39.2%	36.5%	42.5%	6.0%
46	Centre	        62.8%	60.5%	64.9%	4.4%
46	Dickinson	44.2%	42.7%	45.3%	2.6%
46	Skidmore	29.8%	34.7%	27.3%	-7.4%
49	Gettysburg	37.8%	38.1%	37.6%	-0.5%
49	Pitzer	        22.3%	22.7%	22.1%	-0.6%
49	Reed	        32.5%	30.6%	33.9%	3.3%
49	St. Olaf	58.9%	58.5%	59.2%	0.7%

Keilexandra · 10-23-2009, 11:05 PM

" Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Scripps, and Barnard are women's colleges.

* Harvey Mudd is commonly considered a tech school. The enrolled class of 2008-09 is 64.5% male, with a much higher female acceptance rate.

* West Point is a military academy. The enrolled class is 85% male, but women are actually admitted at a lower rate than men.

* Other schools that have a majority of enrolled male students: Claremont McKenna, Sewanee, Union.

* Vassar, Connecticut College, and Skidmore (and possibly others?) are former women's colleges. Only Skidmore releases its CDS; the enrolled class is 61.3% female and women are over 7% less likely to have been admitted.

* Pomona is required by charter to have a 50/50 gender balance. The female acceptance rate is nearly 8% lower than the male acceptance rate.

* Other coed liberal arts colleges that significantly disadvantage women: Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Kenyon.

* Conversely, coed liberal arts colleges that have a significantly higher acceptance rate for women (>2% differential): Grinnell, Colby, Colorado College, Bucknell, Sewanee, Trinity (CT), DePauw, F&M, Union, Centre, Dickinson, Reed. It is worth noting that Bucknell and Union offer engineering.

* Trinity (CT) admits women at a 5% higher rate than men, yet only enrolls 51% women.

* Colleges that do not release a public CDS that I can find: Vassar, US Naval Academy, Occidental, Lafayette, Bard, Connecticut College.

Kei-o-lei · 10-23-2009, 11:30 PM

Thanks!!!

Good stuff

Kei

P.S. Do our screen names mean that we are distantly related?

Corbett · 10-23-2009, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Pomona is required by charter to have a 50/50 gender balance. The female acceptance rate is nearly 8% lower than the male acceptance rate.

That's true in absolute terms. However, it's probably more appropriate to compare the M/F acceptance rate numbers in relative terms. An 8% absolute difference is much more significant when acceptance rates are low than when they are high.

For example, the list above indicates that Pomona and Skidmore both have higher acceptance rates for men, by 7.6% and 7.4% respectively. Based on those numbers alone, you might assume that both schools favor male applicants to about the same degree.

But in relative terms, the male acceptance rate at Pomona is about 60% higher than the female rate. Statistically, if you have a Y chromosome, your chances of acceptance at Pomona rise by approximately 60%. At Skidmore, on the other hand, the male acceptance rate is only about 16% higher than the female rate.

It should be apparent that 60% vs 16% is a more striking difference that 7.6% vs 7.4%. Pomona's admissions policies arguably favor male applicants to a much greater degree than Skidmore's, despite the nearly identical "F-M Diff" numbers shown in the table above.

CaliforniaDancer · 10-23-2009, 11:46 PM

Wow, I found a lot of that really interesting/surprising. Too bad about Swarthmore....and maybe I should apply to Harvey Mudd :P

Corbett · 10-24-2009, 12:09 AM

The bottom line is that many top schools have unbalanced applicant pools, with significantly more female applicants than male applicants. At Brown, for example, there were 12,518 female applicants vs 8,115 male applicants for Fall 2008. So there were 54% more women than men in the applicant pool.

But Brown wants a reasonably balanced enrollment. To get it, they have accept male applicants at a higher rate and female applicants at a lower rate. The male acceptance rate was 45% higher than the female acceptance rate,

And yet women still outnumbered men, by 11%, in the entering class.

greg6or · 10-24-2009, 12:21 AM

Trinity also offers engineering.

Keilexandra · 10-24-2009, 12:56 AM

Kei - Perhaps we are long-lost cousins!

Corbett - As I said, my background in statistics is woefully inadequate. If you can turn your logic into a formula to calculate a new column, please do share it...

I've always known abstractly that it is more difficult for female applicants to gain admission to top schools, especially top LACs; but these numbers put it into perspective.

ghostbuster · 10-24-2009, 12:21 PM

I think in general, without gettting overly granular about this, the sheer numbers of female applicants to college having exploded in the last 30 years (and now most of them graduating in something more than "nursing or education" instead of dropping out after a few years) coupled with a decrease in male applications overall at many schools means that it is harder for women to gain admission at particularly the most selective schools. That explains most of the differential. Many schools attempt to reach an even balance in gender in their incoming classes, and some have acquiesced to reality and now you may see stark differences in the number of women admitted versus men. If more colleges were absolutist about a 50/50 gender class, the number of women accepted would plummet....simply because they have more female applications overall than male.

Studies have been done and continuing to be done why males are not applying to colleges as much and why some males drop out of college more frequently than others.
Some have even suggested (I am not saying I agree with this) that as we become more language oriented (CR) and less hands on engineering oriented in society, where males "in general" (yes, I know there are always exceptions and many women make excellent engineers or do mechanical related jobs), these differences will accentuate over time. (Those "inate" skillsets we have genetically. Verbal versus mechanical/hands on type of things).

I am not saying that males admitted have lower stats and scores necessarily. Only that insofar as schools stay close to the 50/50 gender parity in admissions, that women may have a tougher road to climb as they have more gender competition in the number of applications.

ghostbuster · 10-24-2009, 12:25 PM

Three years ago my D1 was waitlisted at a very top tier LAC. A male friend of hers with lower stats was admitted. So we experienced this phenomenon straight up. It is what it is.

Keilexandra · 10-24-2009, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostbuster

I am not saying that males admitted have lower stats and scores necessarily.

Without equivocating, I would say that the general trend does indicate admitted males having lower stats; if admissions must reach deeper into the male applicant pool in order to achieve a semblance of gender parity, obviously some admitted men would not have met the higher standard for women.

sunmachine · 10-24-2009, 03:30 PM

Hmm. Are you aware of any colleges that have posted the stats of their admits and enrolled students broken down by gender? That would be interesting, for sure. But till I see them, I'd be pretty hesitant about making such a sweeping statement.

I'm not exactly sure how this fits into the conversation, but there's a strange trend at my son's high school in that for several years the top 10% of the class based on grades has been mostly girls, but the top 10% of the class based on SATs has been mostly boys. Wondering if other schools have seen this trend.

Keilexandra · 10-24-2009, 03:38 PM

^ I have not seen such data. However, I do not believe that the male applicant pool is significantly stronger than the female applicant pool, especially at the LACs in my OP (the opposite would be more likely). This disparity has been acknowledged at least once, by Kenyon's dean of admissions IIRC. Therefore, if the male applicant pool is NOT stronger than the female applicant pool, and a higher percentage of the male applicant pool is admitted, it follows that the admitted male applicants will be overall weaker than the admitted female applicants.

lockn · 10-24-2009, 03:49 PM

I doubt that any college would release that data if it showed a disparity unless required by law.

Here is some missing data from 2008-2009.
(female, male)
Vassar: 21%, 34%
Naval Academy: 14%, 13%
Occidental: 40%, 39%
Lafayette: 41%, 34%
Bard: 25%, 25%
Connecticut: 34%, 36%

College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics

Keilexandra · 10-24-2009, 03:57 PM

Wow, the Vassar differential is huge. 13%!