Why are there more boys than girls at Oxbridge?

Haha, there's 80 boys in my year at college compared to 34 girls.

Now THAT'S a big discrepancy.

I have absolutely no idea why that is though - some subjects people here would probably think of as usually being male dominated are female dominated, most arts subjects have more girls...

Reply 62

If you are a girl then you won't complain with those figures :biggrin:

A guy would find it depressing.....

Reply 63

You'd think that would leave us with overwhelming choice...but you'd be wrong...

Reply 64

Maybe...... (but thats because you are at Oxford :p:

)

Reply 65

Haha, probably. I miss North American boys. At least I know where I am with them, so many guys here are just so...awkward.

Reply 66

Lol. ;console;

Maybe if you do masters at Cambridge you will meet better guys :biggrin:

Reply 67

HCD

harr

Why isn't it a reasonable thing to ask? If a higher proportion of male applicants are successful than female, it seems stupider to me to not wonder about it. If he'd assumed that it must be discrimination without really thinking about it then I could accept you calling him stupid, but he's just come here and asked for opinions, hopefully making people think about why there's a discrepancy.

The point is, there's no statistically significant discrepancy at all. To the nearest 5%, it's a straight 50:50.

Reply 68

harr

15

If it's just one year then I'd agree, but I think he said something about the balance being in favour of males consistently over a longer period. Of course the difference is still tiny, but I'd be inclined to say that it is a significant insignificant difference.

Reply 69

cpchem

14

Mayfly

Haha, there's 80 boys in my year at college compared to 34 girls.

Now THAT'S a big discrepancy.

I have absolutely no idea why that is though - some subjects people here would probably think of as usually being male dominated are female dominated, most arts subjects have more girls...

And pretty much the same in the year above you, and the third year too. The current fourth year (as well as the people who left last summer as third years) was pretty much 50/50.

Reply 70

Shrayans

Lol. ;console;

Maybe if you do masters at Cambridge you will meet better guys :biggrin:

Haha, I'm being unfair. There's nothing wrong with most people in our year, most are lovely, the college system just doesn't lend itself well to dating so the huge amounts of guys aren't as beneficial as they might seem.

I'm not sure if any colleges have more girls than guys...anyone know? Hilda's doesn't count.

Reply 71

Zhen Lin

12

I read here at one point that Emmanuel at Cambridge was one of the few colleges with more women than men.

Reply 72

Zhen Lin

I read here at one point that Emmanuel at Cambridge was one of the few colleges with more women than men.

Planning already, eh Zhen Lin :biggrin:

Reply 73

*stars and stripes*

6

Zhen Lin

I read here at one point that Emmanuel at Cambridge was one of the few colleges with more women than men.

Ahhh damn it :wink:

*gp* of course, silly superstitous habits I have!

Reply 74

dimdim_lee

seriously, get over it.

Reply 75

Turdburger

At the very top level, there are more men with exceptional IQs than women. Its not that men have a substaintially different intelligence to women, just the standard deviation.

As intelligence scores among the study group rose, the academics say they found a widening gap between the sexes.

There were twice as many men with IQ scores of 125, for example, a level said to correspond with people getting first-class degrees.

At scores of 155, associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

Reply 76

Sidhe

Well the reason is a men have a broader spectrum than women so IQ's don't average out any differently.

No ones surprised though maths - which we're supposed to be generally better at - makes up more of the tests than language comprehension if you ask me. And since we're supposed to have better spatial awareness too it's going to be that way. That doesn't make women less intelligent though, just not as good at IQ tests in certain parts of the bell curve.

If you think IQ measures intelligence with any real precision though, I'd say not, but then everyone disagrees with me on this one bar the inventors of the IQ test and most anyone with any knowledge of how they work.

Reply 77

t.w.

5

Otter123

Why on EARTH are there more boys than girls at Oxbridge?

In their latest prospectus (you can find it on the web) it states:

Applicants: Boys Girls
50.6% 49.4%

So the statistics should be the same for the percentage of boys and girls admitted. But no -

Successful applicants: Boys = 53%
Girls = 47%

Why is this, when girls' A-Level results are OVERALL better? If A-levels play a large part (which they should) then we would be seeing about 60% girls and 40% boys at Oxbridge based on academic achievments.

I've been told that it's because the people at the top of Oxbridge are conservative stuffy old men who'd prefer their public school boys to get in. From the stats it seems that girls are discrimiated against.

Some say that perhaps boys are more confident in the interview and therefore get more places than girls. But this is hardly true.

What do people think?

So in terms of the population in general, girls do better at A-levels than boys, therefore the top 1% of girls should be better than the top 1% of boys?

Firstly, you fail to grasp the requirements for a successful Oxbridge application. At the time of giving out offers, A-level results aren't even known (instead predicted grades have to be used), and even if they were, they wouldn't have as much sway as admissions tests or the interview. Nearly everyone applying will be expecting at least 3 As, so clearly whilst A-levels can differentiate within the entire population, within the pools of potential applicants they cannot.

This leads me on to another failing in your argument. The statistics for the general population can rarely be extrapolated to a tiny fraction of that population. Going by the population in general, girls destroy boys at GCSE and KS3 Maths. Now have a look at the boy to girl ratio in the IMOC teams....

Why exactly is it so obvious that boys are not more confident than girls? Certainly, boys tend to be more ambitious at an early age (especially those applying for PPE) and this ambition undoubtedly drives them. They might not be motivated by a dull A-level syllabus, but the prospect of being PM is likely to get them working a tad harder, don't you think?

Reply 78

solihp

9

t.w.

So in terms of the population in general, girls do better at A-levels than boys, therefore the top 1% of girls should be better than the top 1% of boys?

Firstly, you fail to grasp the requirements for a successful Oxbridge application. At the time of giving out offers, A-level results aren't even known (instead predicted grades have to be used), and even if they were, they wouldn't have as much sway as admissions tests or the interview. Nearly everyone applying will be expecting at least 3 As, so clearly whilst A-levels can differentiate within the entire population, within the pools of potential applicants they cannot.

This leads me on to another failing in your argument. The statistics for the general population can rarely be extrapolated to a tiny fraction of that population. Going by the population in general, girls destroy boys at GCSE and KS3 Maths. Now have a look at the boy to girl ratio in the IMOC teams....

Why exactly is it so obvious that boys are not more confident than girls? Certainly, boys tend to be more ambitious at an early age (especially those applying for PPE) and this ambition undoubtedly drives them. They might not be motivated by a dull A-level syllabus, but the prospect of being PM is likely to get them working a tad harder, don't you think?

It is worth pointing out at that of Oxbridge applicants, girls have higher grades on average, both at GCSE and A level.

Reply 79

Turdburger