I’ve mentioned the curious male-female imbalance in the UTSA statistics program,
and I thought it was common knowledge that the current male-female
ratio for undergrads in American universities is about 43-57.
Apparently I was one of the few illuminati. Suddenly it’s big news, here, there, aqui, everywhere.
What’s interesting about this imbalance is that it not only exaggerates
the numerical ratio of students entering college (46.5-53.5), it runs
completely contrary to the measured advantage that men have in scholastic aptitude!
For example, if a college were to use SAT scores of 625 (about top 10%)
as admissions cutoffs, the verbal score would put men and women about
even (50-50), while the math score gives men a huge boost (58.9-41.1).
and I thought it was common knowledge that the current male-female
ratio for undergrads in American universities is about 43-57.
Apparently I was one of the few illuminati. Suddenly it’s big news, here, there, aqui, everywhere.
What’s interesting about this imbalance is that it not only exaggerates
the numerical ratio of students entering college (46.5-53.5), it runs
completely contrary to the measured advantage that men have in scholastic aptitude!
For example, if a college were to use SAT scores of 625 (about top 10%)
as admissions cutoffs, the verbal score would put men and women about
even (50-50), while the math score gives men a huge boost (58.9-41.1).
I’m going to use this set of calculations in my statistical literacy course
as a sneaky way to introduce my students to normal probabilities,
z-scores, and percentiles. I’ll be posting calculations and
graphs in the next few days as we develop them, and I’ll try to get
some data specific to UTSA to see how we reflect the pattern.
Stay tuned.
Update (25 Sep): One of the Department of Education reports that started this discussion is here.
The Random Texan 
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