For Women, College Admissions Process Gets Even Harder

By Genevieve Quinn



As if it wasn’t hard enough to get into college these days, it has become even tougher if you don’t have a Y chromosome.


Women outnumber men by almost two to one among college students over the age of 25, according to the American Council on Education.


At the undergraduate level, the percentage of male students in attendance is 42 percent.


Women have a comfortable 60 to 62 percent majority among undergraduates.


At the graduate level, women have a slight enrollment majority in fields such as medicine, at 51 percent, and other health science professional programs, at 53 percent.


What was once considered a man’s field of study now has an equal to slightly larger number of women.


With more women attending college than ever before, the competition has increased for acceptance into top notch private universities.


With so many female students applying, many colleges want to offset the numbers by taking in more male applicants.


This could mean accepting a male candidate who is less qualified than a female candidate.


“I have a male friend who got accepted into a school that I was rejected from. He didn’t have the GPA, SAT scores or extra-curriculars that I did. It was pretty upsetting,” said Melissa Cartagena, a local college student.


While these obstacles may prevent women from getting into their top school choices, it says a lot about the changing times.


Women have certainly evened the playing field.