Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Thursday, March 23, 2006
Girls and colleges, what’s fair?
A college would never look at two applicants with similar credentials (test scores, class rank, activities, quality essay, good recommendations) and choose one simply because of their gender, right?
And if they did, would it surprise you to know that schools prefer to admit a lower ranked boy over a higher rated girl?
That is the reality according to an Op-Ed piece by the dean of admissions at Ohio’s Kenyon College. Jennifer Delahunty Britz gives a revealing glimpse into the pressure on universities to maintain some semblance of gender balance in the midst of a trend that has seen fewer boys and more girls going to college.
Ironically, she says the boys are now a sought after “minority” in the college selection process. That’s because a majority of college students are now women, and that majority is growing. Some estimate the percentage of boys among college students could fall as low as 40 percent in the next decade or so.
Some might say fine, if the boys don’t do the work, don’t admit them. And if colleges see their percentages fall way out of whack, so be it. But Birtz says even if a college wanted to follow that route, in an effort to be fairer to the girls, it would be courting disaster to do so. Statistics show if there are too few boys, it becomes even harder to attract male applicants. And, interestingly, they’ve found women will also stop applying if a school tilts too far female.
So Britz worries about our daughters. While boys can slide into good colleges with more ordinary credentials, the competition among girls to get into the same colleges can be fierce.
Birtz doesn’t see simple solutions to this problem. What would you tell that her colleges should do?
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