It appears so. According to David Brooks – acclaimed New York Times columnist – among 22 year olds, there are 185 female college graduates for every 100 male college graduates. While we can definitely acknowledge that the balance of men and women in college definitely favors women, but can it possibly swing this far?

In a report done by the American Council of Education, the college student body has been 43% male since 2000. For those of you too lazy to do the math, this yields 133 women to 100 men. A skewed result, but not anywhere near 185 to 100.

This does not mean David Brooks research is incorrect, it simply means that men are graduating later; which is supported by a survey done by the American Community Survey in 2008 that surveyed 25 year olds and found that there are 141 women college graduates per 100 men college graduates – much as we would expect from the enrollment data.

So what can it be?

A few ideas to ponder…

1. Men may take longer to graduate college due to course selections. Perhaps more men are enrolling in 5 year programs (science, pre-med, etc.) than women. Also, it is becoming increasingly uncommon for people to graduate college in 4 years which may perpetuate this data.

2. Men may be more inclined to take a “gap” year or year off in the middle of studies. In addition, men are more likely to join the military. Many people serve for a few years and return years later to graduate, thus they are older when they graduate.

3. Men may be more apt to get unfocused and chase girls instead of grades.

Just a few thoughts.

Dustin Popiel

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