Women on the increase

Statistics on the incoming freshman class have just been released, and the number of both female and minority students saw significant increases. The 2004-2005 freshman class is composed of nearly 800 women, as well as 108 Hispanic students.

The number of women admitted shows a 32 percent jump over last year’s freshman class. The Hispanic population showed even stronger growth, with a 52 percent increase. Other minorities, including African-Americans and international students, each showed smaller increases of 20.6 and 11.2 percent, respectively.

The College of Sciences will see the largest increase in the number of women taking classes in the fall. With nearly three-fourths of the incoming Biology majors being female, and an 80 percent rise in the number of new female students overall, the College can expect continued growth in the future.

Other colleges benefiting from the increase are the College of Architecture, which admitted 62 percent more women than last year, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, with a 20 percent rise.

Many of the majors with the worst male-to-female ratios continue to have weak female enrollment, however. The College of Computing, as well as most programs of the College of Engineering, did not see significant increases in the number of women admitted.

A significant cause of the increase in the number of admitted females may be the programs started to attract middle and high school girls to careers in science and engineering. The Georgia Tech Futures program, a visitation program targeting girls in their sophomore and junior years of high school, allows these prospective students to spend time talking with faculty, students and staff, learning about such things as the variety of majors they could pursue at Tech, internship and co-op opportunities, and the availability of scholarships.

In addition to recruiting programs, Tech offers several resources for current female student. These include the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), an on-campus organization that aims to make the campus environment more supportive and welcoming for women, as well as several college-specific organizations, such as Women@cc, which focuses on the women pursuing Computer Science majors.

These support programs are designed to provide a sense of community for the women at Tech, which has traditionally been lacking due to the low number of female students. “I think the point of all these different programs is to build the community of women here at Tech so they feel that there are people they can connect with who may be going through some of the same challenges,” said Yvette Upton, director of the WRC.

Some students welcomed increases in the female population. “I think it is good,” said Electrical Engineering major Pranav Anbalagan. Other students worried about potentially-discriminatory admissions practices, however. “[It] makes me wonder if they’re getting in just because they’re girls,” said Computer Science major Ellen Matthews.

According to Matthews, this is a common belief among some students on campus.

“Walking into class as a girl, I think sometimes the guys think, ‘She’s just here because they’re filling up their quota for girls’.”

“It’s a good thing that they’re getting the opportunity to come, but at the same time it puts ... stereotypes on the girls who are here, no matter how they got here,” she said.

The admissions office said that no preferential treatment is given to female applicants or any other minority population, explaining that the reason for the increase has more to do with females’ drive. “When women are looking at college, they are looking at making a difference and an impact on the world,” said Katie Faussmagne, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Admissions.

The Institute’s Hispanic population, which has grown 125 percent since 2001, has also contributed to increasing diversity on campus.

The 108 students admitted this year are the highest number in Tech’s history.

The 119 incoming international students will also add to the medley of nations represented by Tech’s student body. Nearly half of these students are of Indian origin, though 13 South Korean students will also be taking classes on campus this fall.

The variance of the incoming freshman class’s population shows the Institute is moving in a positive direction, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. “This is how you change the world,” Faussmagne said.