I'm curious...does it help to be a guy?

[brainman]

I've noticed on a lot of the grad schools' websites, the gender breakdown tends to be 75/25 female/male. Does this mean that being male gives you a boost in the admissions process? Obviously admissions is largely merit-based, but I'm curious as to whether or not being a guy makes you more desirable...

 

Your thoughts?

[ctcpx084]

I think this, like many aspects of graduate school admissions, varies by program, though my general feeling is that it doesn't really help. My program at TC went years without admitting more than one male per cohort, and I don't think it's for lack of applicants. I have a classmate who is doing some admissions work in our department who might have a better perspective on this, but I don't think being male counts for all that much in the process.