<p>I’m pleased that the dean has decided to speak out on this issue. This has obviously been a productive thread. But, Hope<em>to</em>Help, you are cherry-picking from his statement. What the dean is really saying, and the data that you cite supports it, is that whether deliberate or not William and Mary is in fact applying different standards for boys than girls. To me, this is his most telling quote:</p>
<p>“But we might suspect that our holistic, individual review rewards what can appear to a reader as untapped potential in certain young men even as the same process discounts what appears to be stronger achievement in the classroom by young women.”</p>
<p>This – rewarding potential by boys at the expense of actual achievement by girls – is what’s going on, and I submit that the only reason it’s going on is because William and Mary gets many more applications from girls and wants a gender balanced class. Schools with evenly balanced application pools reward achievement and potential equally, and without regard to gender. </p>
<p>(Hope<em>to</em>Help’s quote also leaves unanswered the real question: how do the stats of DENIED women compared to those of admitted men?) </p>
<p>The only remaining question is whether all of this is fair. The dean says yes, I say no, and the Hope<em>to</em>Helps and soccerguys of the world pretend it isn’t happening. End of story, and no more posts from me on this subject. Thanks for your time.</p>