Trump’s attack on DEI may hurt college men, particularly White men

[Toni]

Not buying it, and the article is behind a paywall. Colleges usually favor female applicants because, even though most college students are female, they are a minority in many majors, and get preferential admissions in e.g. hard sciences and engineering.

I don’t know how it is now but when I applied for college I did not have to declare a major in my application. So, how do women get preferential admission in the hard sciences and engineering these days? I could see it for grad schools but how exactly does that work for undergrad admissions?

Fifty years ago, I had to apply to a specific school within the university (engineering in my case), as did every other applicant. My kids had to do the same 10-12 years ago.

It’s pretty common and maybe mandatory for incoming students wishing to study engineering to need to declare a major upon applying. This is almost certainly true of nursing but not necessarily other majors.

Despite Derec’s speculation, more women are being admitted to universities because more women are applying and in general, girls tend to earn higher grades and test scores. Partly this is because there are fewer barriers to women entering traditional male fields but what I see as bigger issues are the 40+ year war on education, including rising costs and less proportional state funding. From my generation forward, girls have been increasingly encouraged to pursue traditional male fields such as mathematics and physics and chemistry and engineering—indeed, degrees other than elementary Ed and nursing. We need to similarly encourage boys to excel in school, instead of making it a ‘girl’ thing as I fear it has been.

I graduated from high school more than 50 years ago. The top two students in my graduating class were female, as they were in my older sister’s graduating class and in the next few classes ( I didn’t pay attention to room after all my siblings graduated). I can say with absolute certainty that the girls took a course load that was as vigorous, college prep oriented as the boys did and also worked similar number of hours at part time jobs. But then, and perhaps still, boys had more career options in trades and some were siphoned off from the likely pool of college applicants in favor of trade schools or military or apprenticeships.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Not buying it, and the article is behind a paywall. Colleges usually favor female applicants because, even though most college students are female, they are a minority in many majors, and get preferential admissions in e.g. hard sciences and engineering.

I don’t know how it is now but when I applied for college I did not have to declare a major in my application. So, how do women get preferential admission in the hard sciences and engineering these days? I could see it for grad schools but how exactly does that work for undergrad admissions?

Fifty years ago, I had to apply to a specific school within the university (engineering in my case), as did every other applicant. My kids had to do the same 10-12 years ago.

Fair enough. I majored in physics but didn’t decide on that until after my first year.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

Are veterinary medicine, marine science (to include biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, physical oceanography, and geology) fluff? Those are areas where I have direct experience being a marine biologist married to a veterinarian. Last time I checked those are female dominated in the last decade. Must be fluff.

55% (oceanography) is not domination. Try mathematics.
Speaking of which, I remember a girl admitted to math PhD program who had to tutored on .... complex (!!!!) numbers.
That's desperation.

Break it down by age. I’m in fisheries science. Twenty years ago we were 80 percent white male. I am at a freshwater conference now that is majority female. However, the majority of senior roles are still male as a reflection of the demographics 20 years ago. Things are changing fast and it is upsetting the MAGA. They want discrimination and intimidation back so they can talk dirty at the poker table at the after-hours social.

55% is barely majority.

55% is bigger than the majority margin that lead to the Brexit disaster for the UK.

 

[scombrid]

You could just declare some majors at my university. You had to apply directly to the engineering, architecture, and biotech colleges. You had to maintain a high GPA in natural resources science and management before they’d let you declare certain majors in the college.

 

[scombrid]

Are veterinary medicine, marine science (to include biological oceanography, chemical oceanography, physical oceanography, and geology) fluff? Those are areas where I have direct experience being a marine biologist married to a veterinarian. Last time I checked those are female dominated in the last decade. Must be fluff.

55% (oceanography) is not domination. Try mathematics.
Speaking of which, I remember a girl admitted to math PhD program who had to tutored on .... complex (!!!!) numbers.
That's desperation.

Break it down by age. I’m in fisheries science. Twenty years ago we were 80 percent white male. I am at a freshwater conference now that is majority female. However, the majority of senior roles are still male as a reflection of the demographics 20 years ago. Things are changing fast and it is upsetting the MAGA. They want discrimination and intimidation back so they can talk dirty at the poker table at the after-hours social.

55% is barely majority.

55% is bigger than the majority margin that lead to the Brexit disaster for the UK.

And I told it to consider age range as well. That 55% is with a legacy of boomers and gen X not having retired yet. The group under age 40 coming behind us is much more than 55% female.

 

[barbos]

55% is bigger than the majority margin that lead to the Brexit disaster for the UK.

Are you threatening with impending disaster?

 

[barbos]

And I told it to consider age range as well. That 55% is with a legacy of boomers and gen X not having retired yet. The group under age 40 coming behind us is much more than 55% female.

55% is the current admission rate.