The University Gender Gap

After millennia of a male-dominated world, women have finally risen to the top. But some college admissions officers suggest that they’ve risen too high.

Women now outnumber men applying to and graduating from college. They comprise 57% of college populations, and they may face discrimination for being too eager for a college education.

The College of William and Mary accepted relatively equal numbers of men and women for the most recent freshman class. However, 7,652 women and 4,457 men applied. Crunch those numbers, and you’ll find that the college accepted 45% of male applicants and only 27% of female applicants.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently caught wind of this inequality, and they’re seeing if universities are deliberately discriminating against women to maintain an equal gender ratio.

The phenomenon of female-dominated universities has yet to strike Penn State. Men represent 54% of the student body, while females represent only 46%. Penn State may be an exception due to its respected College of Engineering, one institute that oozes testosterone.

In any case, discrimination against college-bound women is intolerable. Rather than slackening standards for male applicants, colleges should alter certain structures to increase male enrollment. (Adderral dispensers in the library? Free ESPN Insider accounts for all students?)

But seriously, alternatives to blatant discrimination surely exist. (Although, as a man, a high female-to-male ratio is fine by me.)