Walking into many Boston University classrooms can be intimidating for some male students. They look around and everyone is different than they are.
Different in gender, that is.
According to figures collected by BU’s Office of Admissions, women do in fact far outnumber men at BU, a statistic widely touted by some male students. BU spokesman Colin Riley said the female students at BU outnumber male students by more than 20 percent, and the ratio has remained relatively constant over the past five years.
But it’s not just an issue at BU – the university’s numbers seem to be in sync with a national trend, as studies show that women outnumber men at colleges across the country. According to one survey, entitled “The American Freshman: National Norms,” women made up 55 percent of college freshmen in 2001. Women only made up 48 percent of college freshman in 1970.
The survey, conducted by The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles shows women began to outnumber men at colleges and universities around 1980. The number of women pursuing higher education has increased steadily since that year.
At neighboring Boston College, the male-to-female ratio for the 2002-2003 academic year was 48 percent to 52 percent, according to U.S. News and World Report. Similarly, the male-to-female ratio at Tufts University last year was 45 percent to 55 percent, and at the University of Massachusetts Boston the ratio was 43 percent to 57 percent.
Men still outnumber women at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where 59 percent of the student body was male last year. Harvard University also had 6 percent more men than women.
At Northeastern University, the gender ratio is about even and has remained so for the past two years, said Northeastern Admissions Committee member Alex Snow.
Snow said that historically, more men than women applied to Northeastern when its dominant program was engineering. Since the school expanded its arts and sciences and health sciences departments, she said, more women have been applying to the university.
According to admissions officials at BU, BC and Northeastern, the schools do not actively recruit one gender over another. But a May 23, 2003 USA Today article found that many colleges and universities admissions offices have been practicing an affirmative action-type policy, in which male applicants are allowed lower admissions standards to even out schools’ male to female ratios.
Riley said more women than men apply to BU, but admissions officials do not lower standards for male applicants.
“BU doesn’t select people based on gender,” he said. “The problem starts before students begin applying to schools. It needs to be addressed at an early stage in a young person’s life. Why aren’t more men pursuing a higher education?”
Peter Lee, assistant director of guidance and support services for Boston Public Schools, said the Boston system is aware of the trend and that, starting in students’ elementary and junior high schools years, guidance counselors in the district have been trying to impress the idea of going to college upon all students.
Lee said it is difficult to pinpoint one reason why more men than women are attending college.
“I think that there have been fewer choices for women historically,” he said. “As a way of escaping traditional society roles, women have begun to seek post-secondary education.”
Several BU students said the uneven ratio on campus is obvious, but it has not necessarily affected their academic experience.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Kate Hindin said the ratio seems obvious even when taking part in an activity as routine as riding campus elevators.
“I’ve never been in an elevator in which I was surrounded by guys,” she said. “Almost always do the girls outnumber the guys.”
Hindin said she is not sure if having more girls in a classroom affects one’s learning experience. But all-girl classes are not necessarily what one would expect to see at a co-educational college, she said.
“It is not a good idea to have all girls in a classroom,” she said. “You go to a co-ed school, so you should be in a co-ed environment.”
College of Engineering sophomore Henry Rimmer said he has not noticed a predominance of female students at BU, but that could be because men outnumber women in the engineering programs.
“I don’t think it matters,” he said. “If it got much worse, maybe. 70/30 would be far too unbalanced.”
Nolan Reese, a College of Communication senior, said he does not necessarily want the ratio to change.
“God no – I’m perfectly happy with the way it is,” he said.