I recently had the television tuned to the world news (which I was not watching) and a headline caught my attention. The newscaster began by saying that girls or women were more likely to attend college. Being an educator, I had to listen for more.
He then added that girls often worked harder in school and had more academic ambition than boys. The news story interviewed several teenage girls who commented that they never had any question on whether or not they would attend college. They all said that it was just something that they knew that they wanted to do. Boys, according to the story, are not as settled and set in their academic paths.
The newscaster went on to say that the problem with girls being more set on going to college than boys is that more girls attend college compared to boys. Therefore the gender at many universities is off set and unequal. In some cases the comparison is 60 percent girls to 40 percent boys. Many colleges are unhappy with this unequal level of gender percentages.
In order to compensate for the inequality, some colleges try to admit an equal amount of males and females even if it means requiring different criteria for men as for women. Therefore, males with lower academic achievements are being admitted over females with higher academic achievements.
This outrages many female students who are trying to get into college. They feel that the requirements should be the same across the board regardless of gender or race or any other factor. They feel that the applicants should be admitted based on the same criteria and the percentages should be allowed to fall where they may.
I too think that students should be admitted based on the same criteria. However, I also know that there are many regulations when it comes to the amount of certain gender, race, and ethnicities that must be allowed.
Ending Early College Admissions