“Why Colleges Prefer Boys over Girls"
“Why Colleges Prefer Boys over Girls,” is the title of a recent U.S. News & World Report article (June 25, 2007). Of course the headline is sensationalized a bit to get us to pick up the magazine, but for those of us who have worked in enrollment management any time in the last 15 years, the story is nothing new. More qualified women than men are applying to colleges. While that sounds like a great thing compared to the number of degrees awarded to women in the U.S. just two generations ago, it is a true headache for smaller colleges that seek to keep a balance in the gender ratio of their entering classes.
This issue is complex and multi-faceted. It has all the makings of a sticky, political, media-ready battle. It is not one that will be easily or cleanly solved. In fact, I predict a legal case on the issue will make its way up to the Supreme Court in the imminent future. Many colleges will say it is their right and responsibility to maintain a gender balance to prepare their students for life after college. These schools should carefully study the affirmative action cases of the past 10 years before deciding how to proceed. We tend to think of affirmative action as dealing primarily with the admission rates of African American students, but the issue now covers an array of areas. A few pieces written in the 90’s chronicles how the nation’s premier public university was turning down qualified Asian applicants in favor of “more well-rounded” Caucasian applicants - in fear that the white students would very quickly become the new minority. Gender, I believe, may be the forthcoming component of affirmative action plans.
There are many groups who will forcefully and vehemently promote their views on the issue and these groups may come to a head. There are those who say that admissions should be blind to anything but merit and consider only GPAs, standardized test scores. On another front, there are those that argue that boys are less qualified because the system is biased towards females and against males. These folks will point to experts showing how the public school system and the nation in general has failed boys. Then again, since we all are involved in this issue in some personal way – most of us have mothers and sisters and it’s hard to demonize them from across the dinner table. And, maybe the gender quotas will never become a larger issue than they have been for the past 15 years.