Figure 1: Number of men versus women who applied to Carleton College from the 1999-2000 to 2023-2024 admission cycles.
Figure 2: Number of men versus women who were admitted to Carleton College from the 1999-2000 to 2023-2024 admission cycles.
Figure 3: Number of men versus women who enrolled in Carleton College from the 1999-2000 to 2023-2024 admission cycles.
General Trends
- In general, more women apply and enroll to colleges than men do across the country, thus why there are almost always more women that are admitted and enroll than men (Figures 1-3).
- Between Class of 2010 and Class of 2017 (2006-2013), applications increased by 58% from 4,461 to 7,045 applicants. This phenomenon was shared by multiple highly selective colleges like Carleton. As said by Thiboutot, “In fact, there has probably been an increase in applications to colleges across the board because it has become easier to apply to college” (Stein, Applications Fall 11% – The Carletonian). A potential reason why the increase was higher than other colleges was an upsurge in matriculation of students of color who made up a larger percentage of the class (26.5%) than previous years.
- Amherst applicants increased by ~30% from 6142 to 7927 between 2006-2013 (From Amherst Common Data Sets)
- Bowdoin applicants increased by ~31% from 5401 to 7052 between 2006-2013 (From Bowdoin Common Data Sets)
- Swarthmore applicants increased by ~36% from 4852 to 6615 between 2006-2013 (From Swarthmore Common Data Sets)
- Only male and female genders are reported on the Common Data Set → this is the same with other colleges’ Common Data Set as well. The category for “Another Gender” is present, but there is no data reported by Carleton. Other colleges like Bowdoin and Swarthmore also don’t report data for “Another Gender” but Amherst does. Reporting this data is up to the individual colleges.
- Online applications became more accessible during the 2000s, thus why there is a general increase in applicants from 2000 onwards.