We might have thought that positive actions in admissions were fading after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on fair admissions.
“Men generally find it a bit easier in the admissions process compared to women,” stated Chris Rim, who runs Command Education, a college admissions consulting firm.
Historically, men earned more degrees than women throughout most of the 20th century, but that changed around 1982 when the gender gap began to close. Now, it’s practically flipped.
Currently, there’s about a 17% discrepancy between the number of degrees earned by undergraduate males and females, with males only accounting for 42% of those degrees.
Some universities are striving for a more balanced admissions process, particularly for male applicants.
“They aim for a 50/50 class composition,” Rim noted. “So male candidates might receive recognition at various academic levels. Overall, yes, I think male students do have a slight edge at Ivy League and other top-tier schools.”
Take Brown University, for instance. In 2023, it received 19,666 applications from boys compared to 31,650 from girls—a ratio of roughly 3:5. Surprisingly, they maintained a nearly equal acceptance rate of 50/50, with men accepted at 6.9% and women at a higher 4.2%.
Other institutions show even starker contrasts.
Vassar College, which opened its doors in 1969, has consistently seen a higher number of male applicants admitted compared to females since at least 1999, according to its student newspaper.
A spokesperson for the school remarked that like many liberal arts colleges—especially former women’s universities—Vassar attracts significantly more female applicants than male. In fact, for the 2024-2025 cycle, men faced just a two-point admission rate advantage.
The spokesperson referenced a Forbes article, wherein Vassar’s president Elizabeth Bradley described men in college as “another victim of the Covid-19 pandemic,” urging for actions to address the disparity.
A 2021 analysis by the Hechinger Report indicated that institutions like Boston University, Vanderbilt University, and Pepperdine University had at least a two-point advantage favoring male applicants.
This article reached out to the schools previously mentioned, but did not receive responses or comments.
Rim noted that in the 2027 class, Ivy League schools—excluding Cornell—had more female applicants than males. Yet, enrollment figures were fairly balanced between genders.
While affirmative action based on race became illegal in 2023, a pivotal 1996 ruling by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg distinguished between race-based and gender-based policies, allowing for sex-based preferences to persist.
In certain instances, gender-based affirmative actions distinctly benefit women, such as programs aimed at attracting more females to STEM fields, where they are underrepresented.
However, regarding undergraduate admissions, it seems that as academic performance declines among males, they are nonetheless being favored.
Currently, around two-thirds of top-performing high school students have higher GPAs if they are girls, according to the American Institute of Boys and Men. Meanwhile, gaps in degree completion between genders have continued to grow after the pandemic, a trend observed across all racial demographics.
Rim’s clients express that female students, in general, tend to be more competitive when it comes to academics, coursework, and extracurriculars.
While many of his clients gain entry into several Ivy League schools, approximately 60% are women. In fact, if he were to choose his top five students, they’d all likely be female, he indicated.
“These students often follow up with us, asking, ‘Did you complete X, Y, Z?'” Rim explained. “They generally approach this application process with a more serious mindset.”
