Posted on 12/28/2005 10:30:39 AM PST by Daralundy
Here's a thought that's unlikely to occur to twelfth--grade girls as their college acceptances begin to trickle in: After they get to campus in the fall, one in four of them will be mathematically unable to find a male peer to go out with.
At colleges across the country, 58 women will enroll as freshmen for every 42 men. And as the class of 2010 proceeds toward graduation, the male numbers will dwindle. Because more men than women drop out, the ratio after four years will be 60--40, according to projections by the Department of Education.
The problem isn't new-women bachelor's degree--earners first outstripped men in 1982. But the gap, which remained modest for some time, is widening. More and more girls are graduating from high school and following through on their college ambitions, while boys are failing to keep pace and, by some measures, losing ground.
Underperformance in education is no longer a problem confined to black males, Hispanic males, or even poor whites. In 2004, the nation's middle--income, white undergraduate population was 57 percent female. Even among white undergraduates with family incomes of $70,000 and higher, the balance tipped in 2000 to 52 percent female. And white boys are the only demographic group whose high school dropout rate has risen since 2000. Maine, a predominantly white state, is at 60--40 in college enrollment and is quickly reaching beyond it. There are now more female master's degree--earners than male, and in 10 years there will be more new female Ph.D.s, according to government projections. American colleges from Brown to Berkeley face a man shortage, and there's no end in sight.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Just what I was thinking! :)
I think it's not sound to equate men not going to college with men "losing ground."
College these days is fairly stupid and lots of people know it. Many guys take a look at what it costs to go to a traditional college and what it costs to get educated other ways (online, junior college, etc. etc.) plus the advantage of being able to get a jump on getting into the workplace and they go for it.
This actually may be a sign that men are acting with more creativity and enterprise than the girls who are herded off to college for a 4-year party.
I know it's only anecdotal, but I see this all the time: a bright and aggressive high school graduate (male) decides he can make it (or at least wants to try) without the traditional college experience (4 years of butt tax).
The guys seem to be more willing to do this. Especially those with good computer and software skills. They often can get good jobs ANd the employer offers tuition assistance for them to go to school on their own time while employed.
I also see the trades no longer being as "blue collar" as they were. More guys see this as a way a smart person can become an entrepreneur and wind up as CEO soon.
For example, a kid we know started digging ditches for an inground lawn sprinkler company while in high school. After helping put in several hundred automatic sprinklers, he realized "I can do this and probably run a business better."
He explained to me that his business plan was install sprinklers and sell maintenance/winterize contracts on as many as possible until he reached "x" number. Then he would have a steady income from the service contracts and he would no longer have to dig the ditches. He wanted to accomplish this in 5 years.
He worked like a dog and dug a lot of ditches himself to minimize the number of people he had to hire. He gave excellent service and call-backs, thus maximizing the number of clients who paid an annual fee for his winterizing services and for other tune-ups etc.
Within five years, he had enough in annual fees to have a nice salary. He installs just enough systems each year to make up for attrition in his maintenance contracts. He's like 25 years old and he has a busy season in the spring and fall for a few weeks.
IOW, he's a very successful business owner and now has the opportunity to do other things.
He said not going to college out of college was a no-brainer at the time and that, even at the ripe old age of 25, he is really glad he did all that digging when he was younger!!
One of the key trends in higher education in recent decades has been the dramatic growth in undergraduate enrollments in useless subject matters like sociology, psychology, etc. I'd be curious to know what the cause/effect relationship between this and the growing female enrollment is.
Pussywhipped Socialization? I made sure my son was not.
Thankyou wing nut liberals, for all the Gurly Men!!!
Although the feminine principle is a source of great respect in my life for feminie wisdom...the Wing Nut Libs have changed the cultural balance. This will weaken our nation because it polarizes the sexes socio - economically, increasing the rate of failed marriages. (ie. My daughter married a gangster drop out!)
Darn it, where were these girls when I was in college!
You're absolutley right. They have all these "humanities classes" that you have to take as an undergrad and of those there have to be "X" number of "diversity classes" that are of little or no value. This was in the process of getting a dual Physics/Math degree.
Jeez after 40 years of Feminism what do you expect?
Girls underperform so we change the schools. Boys underperform and we want to change the boys.
Despite this fact, I'm sure the left will tell us all about the racism, sexism and homophobia in our schools next time an education spending bill is up for debate (and tell us about how women are being screwed in education.)
Maybe they're serving in the military.
Now there's a representative population sample.
Thought for SURE by the title alone that this was Maureen Dowd's latest NY Slimes column, LOL!
The LOL is that several FReepers did it anyway, but admit to having done so.
Sorry, I was just joking about the comment which got the president of Harvard in hot water. I didn't mean it to be taken seriously.
The war on boys begins to show results
this is how I am directing my sons and daughters. To think of life in terms of income and investment, not salary and vacation time.
Wow, 16 sequels.
Last time I checked they don't teach people how to be a man in college. If you look at the science majors you will see the vast majority are still male. A Betty Crocker degree is what most of these females are getting.
Engineering or science courses continue to have a preponderance of male students.
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