Does sex/gender affect admissions? Forum

[barley]

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[theotherone823]

Discrimination in education based on gender is a violation of Title IX for any school that gets federal funding (which is almost all of them), so no, gender has no effect on admissions. The disparity is just part of a larger trend of men being overrepresented in institutions of higher learning and in "professional" careers, although it is starting to equalize. My 1L class had slightly more women than men, for example, which the school made a big deal about.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

yes

[barley]

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[theotherone823]

Discrimination in education based on gender is a violation of Title IX for any school that gets federal funding (which is almost all of them), so no, gender has no effect on admissions. The disparity is just part of a larger trend of men being overrepresented in institutions of higher learning and in "professional" careers, although it is starting to equalize. My 1L class had slightly more women than men, for example, which the school made a big deal about.

That's very helpful, thanks! I didn't realize that Title IX also prohibits institutions from trying to correct existing gender disparities through affirmative action-esque admissions policies.

Ah this is what I get for not reading through the whole question (I thought you were talking about gender having a NEGATIVE effect on women).

Affirmative Action programs are complicated, but Title IX wouldn't outright bar them. Still, the advantage a woman would have over a man would be slight. It's probably the equivalent to any other "soft" factor. It's not like being a URM.

[Gamecockfan]

Discrimination in education based on gender is a violation of Title IX for any school that gets federal funding (which is almost all of them), so no, gender has no effect on admissions. The disparity is just part of a larger trend of men being overrepresented in institutions of higher learning and in "professional" careers, although it is starting to equalize. My 1L class had slightly more women than men, for example, which the school made a big deal about.

That's very helpful, thanks! I didn't realize that Title IX also prohibits institutions from trying to correct existing gender disparities through affirmative action-esque admissions policies.

Ah this is what I get for not reading through the whole question (I thought you were talking about gender having a NEGATIVE effect on women).

Affirmative Action programs are complicated, but Title IX wouldn't outright bar them. Still, the advantage a woman would have over a man would be slight. It's probably the equivalent to any other "soft" factor. It's not like being a URM.

Where are y'all getting your numbers? (Not challenging them) I was told at my law school that there are more women than men in law school for the first time ever.

If it is true that women now represent the majority in law school, then most admissions probably don't even consider gender. (No way in hell they are going to give men a boost because of how they are represented in the profession)

[shump92]

Discrimination in education based on gender is a violation of Title IX for any school that gets federal funding (which is almost all of them), so no, gender has no effect on admissions. The disparity is just part of a larger trend of men being overrepresented in institutions of higher learning and in "professional" careers, although it is starting to equalize. My 1L class had slightly more women than men, for example, which the school made a big deal about.

That's very helpful, thanks! I didn't realize that Title IX also prohibits institutions from trying to correct existing gender disparities through affirmative action-esque admissions policies.

Ah this is what I get for not reading through the whole question (I thought you were talking about gender having a NEGATIVE effect on women).

Affirmative Action programs are complicated, but Title IX wouldn't outright bar them. Still, the advantage a woman would have over a man would be slight. It's probably the equivalent to any other "soft" factor. It's not like being a URM.

Where are y'all getting your numbers? (Not challenging them) I was told at my law school that there are more women than men in law school for the first time ever.

If it is true that women now represent the majority in law school, then most admissions probably don't even consider gender. (No way in hell they are going to give men a boost because of how they are represented in the profession)

My guess is that men are an overrepresented majority among law students as a whole. So at your school, there would be no effect but your school is likely not representative of all law schools.If there is actually universal gender(M/F) balance, there still could be schools that lack that balance or schools that lack that balance among certain groups of women (i.e. URM). Finally, gender is definitely going to play a role for people who do not identify as M/F.

[stego]

I've heard in a different thread somewhere that the admissions boost that AA men and AA women receive is slightly different. (Can't remember who it helps more.)

Gender ratios at some law schools is weirdly lopsided. Northeastern's last entering class was 61% female. That probably has little or nothing to do with any kind of overt affirmative action policy, although Northeastern is one of the most liberal law schools in the US.

[A. Nony Mouse]

It's probably Northeastern's PI focus.

[SPerez]

Where are y'all getting your numbers? (Not challenging them) I was told at my law school that there are more women than men in law school for the first time ever.

If it is true that women now represent the majority in law school, then most admissions probably don't even consider gender. (No way in hell they are going to give men a boost because of how they are represented in the profession)

I found this (http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/ ... _gender.pdf). It goes from 1978-2011. Women finally started to get close to parity in the late-90s, but aside from a few years here and there 1L female enrollment never topped 49.4%. (Oddly in 1992 overall female enrollment somehow reached 50% despite none of the previous three years being over 43%. Probably an error, no? Since it went back down to 43% the next year?) Looks like women have never actually been the majority of entering students or graduates. They have very close to even representation in summer associate and entry-level associate positions at graduation, but after that it trails off significantly so that they remain underrepresented in the profession as a whole.

I'm sure there are schools where the pool is sufficiently "average" that they don't need to pay attention to gender at all, and I'm sure there are other schools that struggle to recruit a gender-balanced class where they might take it into account.

Dean Perez
Texas Tech Law

[barley]

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[Gamecockfan]

Where are y'all getting your numbers? (Not challenging them) I was told at my law school that there are more women than men in law school for the first time ever.

If it is true that women now represent the majority in law school, then most admissions probably don't even consider gender. (No way in hell they are going to give men a boost because of how they are represented in the profession)

I was looking at the websites of specific schools. NYU, Columbia, and Chicago all have around 8-12% more men; UVA has over 60% men; and Berkeley's over 60% women. (On my phone, so too hard to open different tabs and give exact numbers!)

I actually found the overall numbers for 2014. 48% women 52% men. So, my information was definitely not correct.