Getting into college is a preparation process. Those who plan to further their education at a university strive for higher grade point averages in high school, volunteer, get involved, and try their best to do well on the SATs to get into the school of their choice.
Naturally those who excelled are more likely to get accepted into the school they applied at than those who didn’t do as well, right?
Wrong.
As it turns out, according to a study done by researchers at U.S. News and World Report magazine, admission counselors across the nation are admitting more males than females even when the female applicants were more highly qualified.
With the number of women attending college rapidly increasing, many universities are trying to balance out their gender ratios by admitting more men. The National Center for Education Statistics anticipates that in 2016 the number of women attending college will be a dominating sixty percent.
The significant difference in male-to-female ratios on college campuses is contributed to the fact that more women graduate high school. According to The Washington Post, men are more likely to drop out of high school or choose to go into the military rather than on to college.
Admission directors surveyed by U.S. News and World Report said gender balance makes social life easier and helps the school attract the best candidates of both sexes. Even ASU falls into this gender gap with a female to male ratio of roughly 52 to 48 percent. But in attempts for a more attractive school atmosphere, colleges risk the fact that they could potentially be breaking a federal law.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that demands equality between men’s and women’s sports and prohibits public institutions from discriminating against students based on gender. Recently the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigated this issue to see if college admission offices were actually discriminating against women to achieve this balance within their student population. As it turns out, the use of gender as part of an admission decision is prohibited at public universities and in private graduate and professional programs, yet it’s still happening.
The commission found that most of the 1,400 colleges participating in their survey were offering more favorable admission standards to male applicants. Schools were found to be adding more male athletic teams, emphasizing hands-on learning programs, tweaking their brochures to seem more masculine, and reaching out to all-male high schools.
Females should not be overlooked when up against male competitors just because of their gender. Universities should consider taking off the checkbox that exposes which gender the applicant is to eliminate the discrimination possibility altogether.
If society has evolved in the sense that more women are now choosing to attend college over men, then so be it. There is a reason the Title IX law was added to the amendments and there is a reason it should be enforced. College is about succeeding and receiving a higher education, and universities should strive to attract motivated, well-rounded students, regardless of gender.
Reach Monique at monique.zatcoff@asu.edu
