Some selective colleges are admitting men at higher rates than women despite far larger numbers of female applicants, according to admissions data, a consultant’s accounts and previous reporting — a dynamic that universities say reflects efforts to maintain gender balance even as men lag in degree attainment.
Admissions records and analyses cited by reporting show male applicants at a number of selective institutions have had higher acceptance rates than female applicants in recent cycles, even when far fewer men apply. Admissions consultants and some college officials say the disparities reflect efforts to avoid heavily female matriculating classes as the overall share of undergraduate degrees earned by men has fallen.
At Brown University in 2023, there were roughly 19,666 male applicants and 31,650 female applicants, but the admitted class was nearly evenly split by sex. That translated to an estimated acceptance rate of about 6.9% for men and 4.2% for women, according to reporting. Vassar College’s campus newspaper reported that for the class of 2022 male applicants were admitted at a 33% rate versus 20.9% for female applicants, a trend observers say has existed at some liberal arts colleges for decades.
Chris Rim, chief executive and founder of admissions consultancy Command Education, told the New York Post he has observed a modest advantage for male applicants based on outcomes for his students. Rim said his clientele are roughly 60% female and that his highest-performing students tend to be women, yet some colleges still admit men at lower academic thresholds to preserve a 50/50 balance. “They want to keep a 50/50 class balance,” Rim said. “That implies that male applicants might be admitted at different academic thresholds.”
A 2021 analysis by the Hechinger Report identified at least a two-point admissions-rate advantage for men at several institutions, including Boston College, Vanderbilt University, Pepperdine University, the University of Miami, Bowdoin College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College, Denison University and Wesleyan University. The Post reported that, for the class of 2027, all Ivy League schools except Cornell received more female than male applicants but ended with roughly equal numbers of male and female matriculants.
Colleges contacted for this reporting either declined to comment or did not respond, according to the Post.
Legal and demographic context shapes how institutions approach sex in admissions. In 2023 the Supreme Court barred race-based affirmative action in higher education in Students for Fair Admissions. A 1996 Supreme Court decision written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been interpreted as allowing distinct legal treatment for sex-based policies in certain contexts, a distinction that complicates how colleges can consider sex in admissions.
Advocates for addressing the gender gap say the shift in degree attainment has been long-running. Men earned more college degrees for much of the 20th century until the gender gap closed in the early 1980s and then reversed. Today, reporting and advocacy groups cite a gap of roughly 17 percentage points in undergraduate degree attainment, with men earning about 42% of bachelor’s degrees, and analysts say the disparity widened after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizations tracking educational outcomes have also highlighted differences in academic performance by sex in high school. The American Institute for Boys and Men reported that two-thirds of students in the top decile of high school grade-point averages are female, while two-thirds of students in the bottom decile are male.
Colleges and advocates point to multiple reasons for gender-targeted efforts in recruitment. Some institutions run programs to recruit more women into fields where they are underrepresented, such as certain STEM disciplines. Others say maintaining gender balance in campus life and academic programs motivates outreach to underrepresented sexes in their applicant pools.
College officials quoted in previous reporting have framed admissions outcomes as the product of applicant pools and institutional priorities rather than an explicit gender preference. Vassar’s spokesperson told the campus newspaper that the college receives significantly more applications from women than from men and noted that the male admission advantage fluctuates from year to year. Vassar President Elizabeth Bradley, in a Forbes essay, described men in higher education as “another casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic” and urged interventions to address the gap.
Policy experts say institutions are constrained by legal limits and public scrutiny. After the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race, universities have reworked admissions policies to comply with the decision while pursuing diversity and composition goals through race-neutral means. Whether some practices have the effect of favoring one sex over another has become a subject of reporting and debate.
The pattern of higher male acceptance rates at some selective colleges comes amid broader demographic shifts in U.S. higher education and ongoing discussions about access and equity. Observers note the trend raises questions about how colleges evaluate applicants, how admissions priorities are set, and what interventions might be used to address downstream consequences for labor markets and communities if one sex continues to lag in degree attainment.
Universities, researchers and public-policy groups continue to monitor enrollment and graduation data and to debate remedies. The mix of institutional policy, applicant behavior and legal constraints means the debate over sex and admissions is likely to continue as colleges release more detailed admissions and enrollment figures in coming years.