So I was looking on the MIT website for admissions statistics when I learned about this thing schools participate in called the Common Data Set, which is kind of like a questionnaire for colleges to fill out about their admissions that are accessible to anyone.

MIT Common Data Set MIT has an overall acceptance rate of 7.9% for the class of 2019. 1447 out of 18356 applicants were admitted.

But the CDS breaks down the numbers further.

740 of the 1447 admits were male and 707 of the 1447 admits were female. A near 50/50 split.

However 12,765 of the 18356 applicants were male while the remaining 5591 applicants were female.

Out of 12,765 male applicants only 740 were admitted which gives an admit rate of 5.8% for male students.

Out of 5591 female applicants only 707 were admitted which gives an admit rate of 12.6%. More than double the acceptance rate of male applicants.

This pattern holds true for nearly all top tech schools in the country.

Caltech CDS Scroll to section C. Caltech had an acceptance rate of 8.8% for the class of 2019.

309 out of 576 admits were male and the remaining 267 were female. A 54/46 split.

Out of the 6525 applicants, 4832 were male and 1693 were female.

309 male admits out of 4832 male applicants gives a male acceptance rate of 6.4%.

267 female admits out of 1693 female applicants gives a female acceptance rate of 15.8%. Again more than double the male acceptance rate.

Harvey Mudd CDS Scroll to section C. Harvey Mudd had an acceptance rate of 13.0% for the class of 2019.

272 out of 534 admits were male and the remaining 262 were female. Another near 50/50 split.

Out of the 4119 applicants, 2897 were male and 1222 were female.

272 male admits out of 2897 male applicants gives a male acceptance rate of 9.4%.

262 female admits out of 1222 female applicants gives a female acceptance rate of 21.4%. Again more than double the male acceptance rate.

Of course these are the most extreme of examples, but it's appalling that this can happen at all. Colleges across the board show similar trends. Many colleges with higher acceptance show acceptance rates for women several percentage points higher than the men's acceptance rate. Georgia Tech being a notable example.

Men's rate 30.0%. Women's rate 41.2%.

University of Michigan doesn't even require any calculations to see the discrepancies in admit rates.

7895 male admits out of 26,562 male applicants. 8152 female admits out of 23,214 female applicants.

If you're applying to college this year or plan on applying in the future, keep these numbers in mind to get an idea of the real picture.