<p>Sorry ariesathena that may be true for some (more like Ivies) but believe me it’s not. If we were looking at a college in general then yes I’d agree but women are (and always will be with the male-dominated tech industries) an underrepresented minority. This is the first time I think you’re not only wrong but very wrong.</p>
<p>Chemical engineering is actually a very woman dominated field but I’ve talked to several girls in my major (freshmen year when stats kind of meant something still) who were perturbed with the lower scores other girls got and got in. That also may make it harder with most girls becoming chemEs (IE & GE too) it may make that harder but other engineering majors want girls DESPERATELY. For girls who want engineering there is quite a disparity of scores. I know quite a few girls who were very qualified for engineering but chose not to. (Which is fine but I’m just saying that because girls statistically have higher scores than guys doesn’t mean all of them apply to engineering [very few actually in comparison to guys, Which is why college end up playing this: who would you rather accept? Joe Schmoe 30 ACT, 25th in class, good recs or a girl who has done a lot for her school, 27 ACT, 10th in class. I’d rather accept the girl because you get so few and retain even less and this one is a hard-worker] and even if the numbers were closer to even (65:35, or even 50:40, like maybe chemE) just because girls have higher scores doesn’t mean they’re the ones applying. It’d be a good chance guess but I don’t think that is necessarily true.</p>
<p>Guys apply because they have good grades and are smart. Girls are actually thinking about it. I’ve met more girls than guys who actually wanted to do engineering, regardless of whether they are staying in it or not. A guy applies to engineering more often for the wrong reasons than girls do. If you’re a girl it’s any easy anyday decision that you’d throw around (like guys often do and hear about more than girls) to apply for a engineering major, ever. I’d take a poll of high school girls who are in all honors and ever considered [like at all, even if they are in the top math and science classes] engineering and all guys with the same question. You tell me who wins. Even parents telling them to do it counts. My sister gave up on science quicker than I did. My mom was actually more upset about that but my dad shrugged it off. I imagine the reaction when I said I want to go into film. Bad.</p>
<p>Also Aries, I think you also overlooked the fact that she is Hispanic. As unfortunate as it is to say that you will be getting in on race. I know Hispanic guys who got in with very low scores to U of I! To counter racist anti-AA-mongers there are just as many I know that scored highly like myself and didn’t need the program to benefit. I know one in particular with a 24 going into EE (one of hardest!) while I met a Caucasian (I did two incoming freshmen programs were I was pared up and one was minority related and the other was not) who had 27 and was too scared to apply to EE so he applied to AgE. If that isn’t fair I don’t know what is. Unfortunately until colleges decide to accept based on economics and being underprivileged and in a bad situation (town’s income below poverty level, bad school etc . . .) as opposed to Color/Race, that’s the way it is going to be. Sad but true.</p>