At some point during the college application process most students come to terms with a simple fact: certain unchangeable parts of their identities, from where they were born to their parents’ level of education, will help or hurt their chances of getting into college.
Some Wesleyan women, however, might be surprised to learn that their gender might actually decrease their odds of getting into Wesleyan. With female-identified students making up 60 percent of applicants but only 52 percent of each incoming class, women are statistically less likely to be admitted to this school than men.
It’s not just at Wesleyan, either. Women nationwide are more likely to attend college than men, with liberal arts colleges receiving significantly more applications from women. Some colleges, like Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, have accepted the gender imbalance and have students bodies made up of 60 percent and 75 percent women, respectively. Wesleyan, on the other hand, has emphasized admitting an even number of men and women since it began admitting women in the early 1970s.
“In 1974, when the trustees put out a statement of what the institution’s goals in admissions should be, one of the stated goals was a student body that was as near to 50-50 male-female as possible,” said Senior Associate Dean of Admission Gregory Pyke. “There’s an interest in having a balance of representation of views and experiences and opinions. I think something like a balance of the number of men and women in the student body is a desirable goal for that reason.”
While Wesleyan has a significant number of trans-identified or non-gender identified students, the statistics collected by the admissions office and by researchers nationwide only take male and female genders into account. Wesleyan’s admissions office does not make available the number of incoming students who do not identify with a gender. The numbers given also only describe the gender of students when they apply to college, and do not factor in changes in gender identity that may occur while enrolled at Wesleyan.
Professor of Economics Joyce Jacobsen has used the admission rates for men and women as a problem set in her classes since 1994. She said the so-called “gender gap” has expanded in the last 12 years, but it’s impossible to say that gender is the only factor that results in a lower percentage of women being admitted.
“One concern that is certainly the case is [the admissions office] would like more people to major in the sciences,” Jacobsen said. “Women might be less likely to put that down as their prospective major area. That would be a factor that would tend to condition in favor of men.”
Jacobsen last calculated the difference with the statistics for the class of 2005, and found that the rate of admission is 3.57 percent higher for men than for women, a difference that is statistically significant. Pyke said that, while the admissions office works to maintain as close to a 50-50 ratio as possible, there is no set policy that actively hinders female applicants.
“There’s the awareness on the part of the application readers that one of the goals of the institution is to be as nearly 50-50 as is possible consistent with having a great freshman class in terms of having great academic credentials and talents and strengths,” Pyke said. “I don’t think there’s really any machinations that go on.”
Jennifer Delahunty Britz is an admissions officer at Kenyon, a liberal arts school where 55 percent of applicants and 53 percent of students are female. She wrote in an op-ed in the March 26 edition of The New York Times that a female candidate in the middle of the applicant pool would have immediately been accepted had she been male.
“I admire the brilliant successes of our daughters,” Britz wrote. “To parents and the students getting thin envelopes, I apologize for the demographic realities.”
At Sarah Lawrence, female applicants may not have to worry about being rejected for their gender, but other problems may crop up.
“While I’m glad that my school does not take gender as a factor when dealing with admission, the effects of too many straight females on a small campus is amazing and distressing,” said Charlotte Price, a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence.
“When I was a first-year, I certainly had my concerns as regards the ratio of men to women on this campus, thinking that it would pose a huge problem for me, socially,” said Jenny Bustance, a Sarah Lawrence senior. “Long story short, it’s an adjustment, but one that I found was relatively easy to make, although I know a lot of women still have problems with it.”
Among current Wesleyan students, most agree than an even ratio of male and female students is important.
“I did want to go to a school that had an even gender balance,” said Kate Longley ’06. “It seemed like an uneven gender balance might contribute to a social scene that I wouldn’t want to enter into.”
“I think that gender balance is a virtue, but not so much that they should disqualify qualified students,” said Alex Levitov ’07. “If smart female students are self-selecting to Wesleyan, I don’t see a compelling reason for the admissions office to exercise some special preference for male applicants.”
Both Sarah Kaufmann ’06 and Jacobsen said that what might be more important is the balance of genders in certain majors and departments.
“I’ve definitely had the experience of being one of the very few feminist voices in the history major,” said Kaufmann, who noted that the history major has more men than women. “I would be interested to see how the majors end up [breaking down by gender].”
Jacobsen said that, despite the disadvantages that remain for women in the workplace, choice of college might not make a huge difference after all.
“Given that there are a few colleges that reject a lot of people and plenty of places you can get a good education, I don’t believe that where you got a degree is that important of a factor on your life,” Jacobsen said.
She added, however, that when her high school-aged daughter begins applying to college, she will be aware of the disadvantages she faces.
“I hate to think that my daughter is getting a lesser probability of getting in than my son,” Jacobsen said. “It strikes me as a consumer as a fundamentally unfair field.”
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