More women go to college than do men. It is a trend that has been prevalent in the U.S. for the past decade.
As of 2007, women represent nearly 57 percent of the average American university’s student body. This number has grown slowly but steadily from 55 percent in 1997, according to data submitted to the Association of American Universities.
But Ohio State has not followed this trend. Of the 55,014 enrolled at the Columbus campus, nearly 52 percent are men, according to the Office of the University Registrar’s 15-day report. In fact, the male population at OSU’s Columbus Campus has actually seen more growth in the past 10 years than the female population. Since 1999, the student body has grown by 4,124 men and only 2,887 women.
Compared to some of its benchmark universities, OSU is an unusual case. Take the University of Florida, for example: The number of men and women enrolled there ten 10 years ago was evenly split — 50 percent men, 50 percent women. Now, women outnumber men by 6 percent.
Another, less extreme, case is the University of California at Los Angeles. Though its men-to-women ratio has remained the same throughout the past decade, women also outnumber men there by 6 percent.
The difference might be attributed to the strength of certain disciplines offered at different schools.
“Schools with good engineering programs are likely going to have more men,” said Julie Carpenter-Hubin, director of Institutional Research and Planning at OSU. “Purdue [University] is a great example.”
Nearly 58 percent of students enrolled at Purdue are men, according to a representative from Purdue’s Office of the Registrar. Its engineering program is ranked ninth in the nation.
Still, even Purdue has seen an increase in women; only 41 percent of students were women in 2007.
OSU’s strong engineering program attracts more men to OSU, said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions.
“It is dangerous to look toward one explanation but it probably reflects the engineering population,” Freeman said. “Engineering is still a male-dominated field.”
Of the 6,191 students the College of Engineering, 83 percent are men. The Fisher College of Business has similar proportions: 63 percent of business students are men.
Freeman said there is discussion about whether men tend to gravitate toward majors that are more likely to lead directly to employment.
“Engineering and business are professions that have seen growth recently, especially engineering,” she said. “The [Science, technology, engineering and mathematics] fields attract many students. Our numbers are up in the biosciences.”
Just as schools with strong programs in male-dominated fields attract more men, schools that have a greater focus on arts and social sciences attract more women. The University of Iowa, for example, has a comprehensive liberal arts foundation and is comprised of about 52 percent women.
Though not as dominant, this phenomenon is also present at OSU.
Women constitute nearly 60 percent of art and music disciplines and 53 percent of social and behavioral sciences.
Women also outnumber men in graduate school. Women represent 54 percent of graduate students at OSU, compared to a striking 59 percent nationwide, as of 2007. And though more men applied to graduate school at OSU for Fall Quarter of 2009, more women were admitted.
The graduate school received 7,321 applications from men and 6,615 applications from women, said William Haupt, enrollment management analyst at OSU. He said 2,026 men were admitted while 2,144 women were admitted.
Elliot Slotnick, associate dean of the graduate school at OSU, listed several things that could explain the graduate school gender gap.
One reason is that the arts, the humanities and English, areas that are dominated by women, often attract more graduate students than other specialties.
“There are not reams and reams of jobs out there in those areas,” Slotnick said. “But if a student has a passion for the arts or for English, they are going to pursue it even if it is rough going.”
Although a balanced student body is important, Freeman said the university never uses gender as a criterion for admittance.
More men applied as undergraduates for the 2009-2010 school year and more men were accepted. But 63 percent of men who applied were accepted while 65 percent of women who applied were accepted.
“We do try to recruit women for engineering and men for nursing because we want that balance, but we never admit a student because they are male or because they are female,” Freeman said.
The College of Engineering, especially, maintains a strong effort to recruit women — and it seems to be working.
More than 20 percent of new, first-quarter freshmen in 2009 in engineering are women, said Lisa Barclay, recruitment coordinator for the College of Engineering. This number is up nearly 2 percent from women who are sophomores in engineering and more than 3 percent from juniors.
“We have had two very good years for women enrollment,” Barclay said.
