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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- For the sake of diversity in the student body, some private colleges are practicing a type of affirmative action: They are accepting some less qualified male students, bypassing more qualified female students.
Westminster College is among them.
So many more qualified women apply than men that admissions officers look at criteria beside grades and test scores to balance out the gender mix, said Joel Bauman, Westminster vice president for enrollment.
"It would be great to have the very best qualified students in a classroom, but instead you want the most diverse learning environment you can have with the widest array of students possible," Bauman said.
Colleges across the country are in a similar predicament.
Nationally, women make up about 60 percent of college enrollment, a trend that began in the late 1970s and has continued.
Many worry about how the trend will affect the nation's work force because women trying to achieve work/life balance often stay in careers for shorter periods of time than men.
In addition, many women still avoid careers in science and engineering, raising concerns that the United States' world standing will suffer as India and China increasingly dominate in those areas.
Westminster administrators have noted women tend to be drawn to nursing and education while men are attracted to sciences and business.
That's one reason why Bauman strives for gender balance while also seeking the best applicants.
Women make up three-fifths of this year's freshman class, with 207 women and 139 men.
Sandy Baum, an economics professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y, said college admissions officers try to predict the success of students, and boys' high school grades often don't reflect their intelligence.
"Eighteen-year-old women have higher grades, but not SAT scores. They are better citizens and all around harder workers than men," she said. "In that regard, colleges face a problem because men haven't grown up."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
