Female v. Male College Ratios


prisonchaplain
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My first child is at Grand Canyon University, which is a large, Evangelical school (over 20,000 this year, but growing rapidly). It's over 60% female, and the honors college is easily 2:1 female. My second child is now applying to colleges, and is seeing that most of the schools she is interested in (smaller, Christian) are 60%+ female. I just checked BYU's stats and it is almost even at 52% male to 48% female. Kudos...but what gives?

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Guest LiterateParakeet

Prisonchaplain, I think it's a good question.  You've sparked my curiosity. I'll do some digging and let you know if I find anything.

ETA: I found this article, but likely you already knew this, and it doesn't really answer your question about BYUs stats are different. I'll ponder some more. Meanwhile here's the article: 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-creativity-cure/201603/the-silent-epidemic-young-men-dropping-out-college

Edited by LiterateParakeet
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5 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

My first child is at Grand Canyon University, which is a large, Evangelical school (over 20,000 this year, but growing rapidly). It's over 60% female, and the honors college is easily 2:1 female. My second child is now applying to colleges, and is seeing that most of the schools she is interested in (smaller, Christian) are 60%+ female. 

Nationwide >56% of college freshman are female, a number that has steadily been rising in recent decades.  https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/why-men-are-the-new-college-minority/536103/

5 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

I just checked BYU's stats and it is almost even at 52% male to 48% female. Kudos...but what gives?

Affirmative action.  

Really.  In order to encourage a more equal gender ratios, BYU admissions lowers the requirement bar for males, versus females.  I'm not sure the current figures, but when I applied 10 years ago, the difference was several ACT points and a notable GPA difference.  

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I did some digging and the top reasons given are: Women simply have more opportunities now, women are more adaptable and resilient, men find it easier to get decent-paying jobs after high school, men DO indeed gravitate more to trade schools. As for religious schools, women tend to be more devout, and so might be more interested in an overtly religious educational community.

I'm wondering if BYU is different, in part, because men are perceived as having greater leadership responsibilities. If so, this might be true in Christian traditions that still embrace male leadership (i.e. denominations that do not allow female clergy).

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13 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

I'm wondering if BYU is different, in part, because men are perceived as having greater leadership responsibilities. If so, this might be true in Christian traditions that still embrace male leadership (i.e. denominations that do not allow female clergy).

The Men and women who attend BYU often get an education with a specific goal in mind: Marriage and family. It is also commonly held that the best way to raise children is with stay-at-home parenting.

In this church, women are often encouraged to be a stay-at-home mother. This does not mean they are discouraged from getting an education. It may seem like a waste, but let me tell you a story. My father was a very sick and injury prone man. When I was in my teenage years, he was officially put on long-term disability. The disability money was proving to be not enough to support our family of 5, so my Mother was obliged to put her master's degree to use once more, and start teaching. Contrary to what the anti would have you think, we did not become social pariahs because of this.

In short, education is encouraged, but motherhood is even more encouraged. 

None of this is based on any official research or anything, just what I've observed.

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35 minutes ago, Scott said:
21 hours ago, Vort said:

Men go to college to try to get knowledge.

Except for BYU.   Everyone goes there to get hitched.😀 

Women go to Jupiter...

(or to Venus)

Edited by Vort
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16 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

I'm wondering if BYU is different, in part, because men are perceived as having greater leadership responsibilities. If so, this might be true in Christian traditions that still embrace male leadership (i.e. denominations that do not allow female clergy).

This is just my own perception, but at least when I was younger and growing up in Utah, my perception was that there was a lot more pressure on men to attend BYU than there were women.   There was probably was more pressure for member men in general to attend college as well, but especially BYU.

If you were Norman Mormon (a term used by Seminary teachers at the time), the ultimate goal to aspire to was to go on a mission, go to BYU, get married in the Temple (at an early age of course), and have kids.   Women weren't discouraged from serving a mission or going to BYU, but it was expected of Men to go on missions and they were highly encouraged to go to BYU.   The U of U was the gentile hangout (although a lot of Church member, including myself went there) and was somehow viewed as the lesser goal among many.   

My own guess is that the discrepancy concerning the male-female ratio at BYU is at least partially and probably largely due to Church culture, especially in Utah.  

 

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Continuation because I thought my last post might be too long:

I don't know what the proper terms are now days, but when I was a kid there were names in the Mormon male youth hierarchy, at least in Utah.  Maybe I’m showing my age since I’ve been out of the loop when it comes to Utah Mormon Culture for a while now.   Here they are in order:

Norman Mormon = The guy who goes on a mission, goes to BYU, gets married young in the temple, has kids, and then fulfills all his church callings.  He might become a general authority or even prophet some day.  If he goes to Church dances he always makes sure to keep the distance of a sideways standard Book of Mormon between him and his dance partner.

Luke Mormon = The lukewarm guy who may or may not go on a mission and probably goes to the U of U if he goes to college.   He probably drinks Coke or Pepsi on occasion.   He goes to PG 13 movies on occasion and may have even seen Nightmare on Elm Street.  He still goes to church most of the time.   At the Church dance he keeps light between him and the girl, but might have to be reminded to keep more space by the chaperones.

Jack Mormon = This guy isn’t an apostate, but usually isn’t that active either.   He might drink coffee and certainly Pepsi or Coke.  If he goes to Church dances, he might even go as far as spiking the punch with Mountain Dew.

Apostate Mormon = Self-explanatory; I hope.

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4 hours ago, Scott said:

Except for BYU.   Everyone goes there to get hitched.😀 

j/k.  Maybe.

My denomination is quite young, having been founded in 1914. Initially education was discouraged. Jesus was coming back soon and there was precious little time to be acquiring 'man's wisdom.' In the early years our churches were short of pastors, so quite a few Bible institutes were started. Eventually they transformed into Bible colleges. Due to this heritage, our church maintains about a half dozen universities--most quite small at roughly 2,000 on-campus students. They are named for their regions: Southeast, North Central, Northwest, etc. So, in those early years, the common joke was that Mary had gone off to Northwest Bridle Bridal College. The schools are universities now, and many women go to study nursing, education, etc. Also, we do have ordained females, though they represent less than 10% of our ministers. Still...60-65% female is not uncommon at our schools.

Edited by prisonchaplain
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Guest MormonGator
16 hours ago, Traveler said:

The amazing thing to me is how many (men and women) come out of college unprepared for their profession.   

 

The Traveler

Agree. Education will only take you so far. You need experience. 

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