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<p>I think the underlying trends are the same, but Swarthmore is probably a little extreme, for three reasons:</p>
<p>First, it is the most diverse elite college or university on the East Coast (Harvard is close), so the impact of that on gender balance is heightened.</p>
<p>Second, it is an historically co-ed college. Most of the elite colleges and universities were all-male and that traditional “maleness” has tended to slow the inevitable gender balance issue. For example, Williams shifted to majority female quite a few years after Swarthmore crossed that bridge (back in the 1990s).</p>
<p>Third, if you think it’s tough to recruit African American and Latino males with very high academic qualifications at a run-of-the-mill elite college, try recruiting in those finite pools when your slogan is “Anywhere Else Would Have Been an A…” and your one sentence brand is “maybe the most academically demanding school in America”. I mean, that is just a big cultural leap for guys. Not as much for girls.</p>
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<p>One thing I would recommend is to look at the demographics for each school on your lists. These numbers are not always readily predictable, either from a gender or ethnic diversity standpoint. One thing is consistent though. Whatever the numbers are, they will tell you a lot about the culture and priorities of any school.</p>