Well, I’m not a feminist, I’m a male engineer in a male dominated field.
But I’ll say this
Fifty percent (or more, actually) of the world’s best potential engineers are female. I want the best engineers possible working and productive. I don’t want the best engineers available from the 46% (or whatever) that happen to be male. That only gives me half of the best. Bah to that.
I don’t know where radical feminist protesting, especially for female engineers, was this on the news recently?
@DrGoogle well maybe I should have used the word feminists instead of radical feminsts as that may be a bit controversial, but yes… it is a major feminist talking point. Here is just one of the many debates that occur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBiS4qTsjCg
@iamjack For pete’s sake, calm yourself. What do you expect the OP to do about it, write a disclaimer in her application asking the schools to only admit her if they admit every male engineering applicant with a 36 ACT? She asked for chances to some specific universities, with her qualifications making up the majority of her post, her gender a minor point. Quit making a mountain out of a molehill. If you want to discuss the evils of feminism or whatever it is you’re droning on about, start your own thread.
And @bodangles if girls are all preparing for motherhood, why do approximately 80% of married women work outside the home? http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm Yeah, they’re not all engineers, but it’s not like women are kept in the house sewing samplers all day anymore. If women want to be engineers, few people would stop them nowadays.
The OP has great chances for any program, including engineering. Consider WPI, RPI, and Stevens which may give good merit with her stats, and are on the east coast not too far from Virginia.
Jack, you’re digging yourself into a hole, ha. The rest of us don’t fall down over some UK chauvinist.
Feminists aren’t why schools are interested in gender balance. And the number of excellently qualified females interested in engineering is jumping.
What OP needs are safety schools. She’s got a 4.0 but we don’t know how competitive her hs actually is or where it is in VA. The top hs in Northern VA throw all bets off for UVA. And she has the 4’s in calc an physics.
@albert69 I’ve already stated that that anyone who wishes to continue the topic pm me, but people kept posting on this thread.
Jack, did you actual watch that video. It’s hilarious. The Nobel Prize winner said men fall in love with women and that’s the problem. He neither said anything about their ability in science or engineering, unlike Larry Summer at Harvard.
But the end he did admit being chauvinist pig. Sorry to derail this thread. I’m leaving this thread.
@lookingforward thank you for your input. However, UVA doesn’t admit on a school-based quota, so the location of my high school doesn’t matter (look up “UVa Admission Quotas for Northern Virginia” on Dean J’s blog). Also, I don’t think my 4s in calc and physics will be a dealbreaker on admission to the schools I listed. It’s my understanding that the difference between a 4 and 5 on AP exams, when it comes to admission, is nominal.
If you still think I need to add more safeties, what schools would you suggest?
AGAIN, they overwhelmingly don’t. Building sets like LEGO only market the “Build a mall! Build a coffee shop! Build Cinderella’s Romantic Castle!” sets to girls ([1](http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Girls-ByCategory)). They are encouraged to emulate cooking, cleaning, and childcare as play (a Google Image search for “girls toys” brings up hundreds of pictures of baby dolls, plus the old favorites like play vacuums and kitchens. By comparison, “boys toys” brings up Lincoln Logs, cars, and LEGOs – “building” things that might play into an interest in engineering). Then they enter school and are told to be quiet more than boys ([1](https://books.google.com/books?id=FYahCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=girls+told+to+be+quiet+more+than+boys&source=bl&ots=cfa37SXJJi&sig=fZfWjFtIIlgkS-t2w43vOwintmI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAGoVChMIxZqI06aGxwIVkgySCh3TLQd1#v=onepage&q=girls%20told%20to%20be%20quiet%20more%20than%20boys&f=false)). Teachers give them lower grades ([1[/url], [url=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/07/upshot/how-elementary-school-teachers-biases-can-discourage-girls-from-math-and-science.html?_r=0]2](http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/02/10/teacher_bias_in_math_new_study_finds_teachers_grade_boys_more_generously.html)). They are raised to believe that math and science are too hard for them. (I thought, thanks to a really discouraging Algebra 2 teacher, that I was bad at math until I was 18 or 19 years old.)
If they make it through ALL OF THAT with some shadow of an interest in STEM, they experience more imposter syndrome and as a result drop out (The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women:
Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention, Pauline Rose Clance & Suzanne Imes). Skewed numbers of women in STEM disciplines are brushed off as women just having different interests (like cooking, cleaning, teaching, childcare…aka those things we teach them how to pretend to do as children). Not to mention the everyday work sexism they face in fields were they are a very small minority.
Perhaps once you make it to college with an idea that you want to be an engineer, it’s easier. But don’t discount the OVERWHELMING influence that exists to discourage girls from even being interested in the first place.
I do feel bad about continuing to be off-topic. Sorry, OP! This will be my last post here.
Ok, obviously no one is willing to have an open mind so I will also be leaving this thread.
There may not be quotas among hs, but they will look for a balance across the state, both to be fair and to be geographically diverse within the state. The sheer number admitted from TJ does present a challenge. And because UVa is so very desirable, a lot of very top kids will apply. It’s one of the colleges I consider most unpredictable.
By all means, go for it. It’s one of my fav schools. But be aware.