Quad
National trends

Study 1

Men and women in admissions

Are colleges admitting men and women at different rates, and is that changing?

Admit women at a notably higher rate

43%48%

Fall 2004 → fall 2024 · share of colleges

Admit men at a notably higher rate

13%6%

Fall 2004 → fall 2024 · share of colleges

Gap at the median college,

−2.3 pts−2.8 pts

Fall 2004 → fall 2024 · median college

The national picture

The share of colleges whose differ by 3 or more points, either way, each fall since fall 2001. Share of colleges, not students.

Share of colleges admitting one sex at a rate 3+ points higher
0%20%40%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher
Gap at the median college, men minus women
−3.0 pts−2.5 pts−2.0 pts200420082012201620202024PandemicMedian gap

Below zero: women were admitted at a higher rate than men.

Counting applicants instead of colleges: weighted by each college's total applicants, men were admitted at 56% and women at 59% in fall 2024 (58% and 61% in fall 2004).

Where it changed

The same lines for each group, on one scale. Switch to Students to weight each college by its applicants.

Share of colleges admitting women (solid) or men (dashed) at a rate 3+ points higher, fall 2001 to fall 2024. Numbers: fall 2004 → fall 2024.

  • Women 3+ pts higher
  • Men 3+ pts higher

Northeast

289 colleges

Women 41% → 56% · Men 17% → 5%

0%25%50%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher

Southeast

223 colleges

Women 33% → 42% · Men 16% → 7%

0%25%50%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher

Midwest

221 colleges

Women 53% → 53% · Men 10% → 5%

0%25%50%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher

Southwest

51 colleges

Women 43% → 45% · Men 14% → 4%

0%25%50%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher

West

113 colleges

Women 54% → 39% · Men 4% → 6%

0%25%50%200420082012201620202024PandemicWomen 3+ pts higherMen 3+ pts higher

Territories

15 colleges

Needs 30 or more

What it means

Across 912 colleges, the share admitting men at a notably higher rate fell from 13% in fall 2004 to 6% in fall 2024, and the share admitting women at a notably higher rate rose from 43% to 48%. In the Northeast, colleges favoring women went from 41% to 56%. The West moved the other way: 54% to 39%.

A gap can reflect who applies as much as how colleges choose: these numbers show where the gap changed, not why.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges reporting both men's and women's acceptance rates, with at least 1,000 applicants, in both years: 912 colleges in fall 2004 and fall 2024. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Groups. Colleges are grouped by . A group needs 30 or more colleges in the panel; smaller ones show .
  • Notably higher means a gap of 3 or more percentage points, the bar college pages use. Applicants by sex aren't in the history yet, so a college needs 1,000+ applicants in total at both ends instead of the college pages' 200 of each sex.
  • Shares and medians count each college once. The Students view and the applicant sentence weight each college by its total applicants.
  • Yearly lines run from fall 2001 over the panel colleges reporting each fall; a year is left out of a line when under 90% of its colleges reported.
  • The universe. The site's four-year colleges, not all of U.S. higher education. Breakdowns show where a change happened, not why.

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey (admissions section), Fall 2001 to Fall 2013;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)