Milestone Achieved At Caltech
August 3, 2024 10:39 AM Subscribe
Earlier this week, Caltech announced that for the first time in its history, it has reached gender parity in its incoming undergraduate class.
Caltech was founded in 1891 as "Throop University" (for founder Amos Throop) in the seventeen year old city of Pasadena. It eventually became the California Institute of Technology in 1920.
Caltech admitted men only until 1970, with it's first women graduates in 1973 (transfers from University of Maryland, Wellesley, and Harvey Mudd and their first freshman attendees following in 1974. The first three graduates all have gone to long careers in science and teaching: Stephanie Charles, Deborah Chung, and Sharon Long
The first black women admitted to campus for study followed in 1972:Karen Maples, Deanna Hunt, Lauretta Carroll
For the record, MIT is slightly behind at 49%
Caltech was founded in 1891 as "Throop University" (for founder Amos Throop) in the seventeen year old city of Pasadena. It eventually became the California Institute of Technology in 1920.
Caltech admitted men only until 1970, with it's first women graduates in 1973 (transfers from University of Maryland, Wellesley, and Harvey Mudd and their first freshman attendees following in 1974. The first three graduates all have gone to long careers in science and teaching: Stephanie Charles, Deborah Chung, and Sharon Long
The first black women admitted to campus for study followed in 1972:Karen Maples, Deanna Hunt, Lauretta Carroll
For the record, MIT is slightly behind at 49%
Wait hold on their class size is only about 220 people? *googles* Their entire undergraduate class is only 1023 people!? I've never lived in California but somehow from here in the Midwest it always seemed like Caltech ought to be bigger.
posted by axiom at 11:11 AM on August 3 [5 favorites]
posted by axiom at 11:11 AM on August 3 [5 favorites]
"For the first time in history, Caltech's heavily male faculty recognizes that women might be just as good at what they do."
I've been on admissions committees. This is not the achievement Caltech seems to think it is—especially with such a small first-year class at such a selective institution.
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on August 3 [8 favorites]
I've been on admissions committees. This is not the achievement Caltech seems to think it is—especially with such a small first-year class at such a selective institution.
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on August 3 [8 favorites]
Wow that's a big change. Most of the top engineering schools have more or less gotten to gender parity but it's been a long slow process. (Anyone have comparitive stats?) But Caltech had a lot further to go. Still has a ways to go yet: as of 2022 the faculty and graduate student populations were still heavily male. That link has a graph of gender balance over time too, in 2012 (first year tracked) it was 615 male 382 female.
Caltech is tiny but highly influential, its graduates are remarkable. One of the best engineers I worked with at Google graduated from there. I learned a lot from her.
posted by Nelson at 11:18 AM on August 3 [4 favorites]
Caltech is tiny but highly influential, its graduates are remarkable. One of the best engineers I worked with at Google graduated from there. I learned a lot from her.
posted by Nelson at 11:18 AM on August 3 [4 favorites]
I was a freshman at Caltech in 1986 and there were 7 men for each woman in my class.
posted by Slothrup at 11:20 AM on August 3 [13 favorites]
posted by Slothrup at 11:20 AM on August 3 [13 favorites]
I don't think presenting one's institutional sexism as an abstract societal barrier to be overcome helps anyone.
posted by vitia at 11:21 AM on August 3 [6 favorites]
posted by vitia at 11:21 AM on August 3 [6 favorites]
Caltech is really, really small - the main campus and residence areas are contained in about 8 city blocks here in Pasadena. MIT, on the other hand, stretches for nearly 2 miles along the Charles River. (It's not terribly deep, but boy is that walk brisk in winter).
MIT's undergraduate class is ~1100, so 5 times the size of Caltech's. When I was at MIT, Course 6 (CSEE) was roughly 20% women. (I think it's hovering around 40% now)
It was really hard to write something nice about Caltech, but I'll celebrate every chance we can to remind people that STEM studies are absolutely gender neutral and normalize that attitude. The more it gets shouted, the more the logjam of institutional culture can be broken up. Could it be better? Yes and this is another step towards that.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:30 AM on August 3 [14 favorites]
MIT's undergraduate class is ~1100, so 5 times the size of Caltech's. When I was at MIT, Course 6 (CSEE) was roughly 20% women. (I think it's hovering around 40% now)
It was really hard to write something nice about Caltech, but I'll celebrate every chance we can to remind people that STEM studies are absolutely gender neutral and normalize that attitude. The more it gets shouted, the more the logjam of institutional culture can be broken up. Could it be better? Yes and this is another step towards that.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:30 AM on August 3 [14 favorites]
I worked at a place where some of the engineering buildings had to be retrofitted with women’s restrooms, since, when they were built (50s/60s), it was believed unnecessary to have them.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:08 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:08 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
I'm kinda thinking it should be renamed back to Throop U.
I'm also thinking that Amos Throop, based on his photo, has seen some s**t and, quite possibly, is staring at it at that exact moment. That is a face of intense discomfort.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:41 PM on August 3 [12 favorites]
I'm also thinking that Amos Throop, based on his photo, has seen some s**t and, quite possibly, is staring at it at that exact moment. That is a face of intense discomfort.
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posted by JustSayNoDawg at 12:41 PM on August 3 [12 favorites]
If either CalTech or MIT had admitted my daughter in 2023 they would have gotten there that much faster. Although they are loving GA Tech and it is certainly much more affordable.
(And yes I am bragging about how smart my child is; very proud. And yes, they are non-binary so all pronouns are in play.)
posted by TedW at 1:12 PM on August 3 [16 favorites]
(And yes I am bragging about how smart my child is; very proud. And yes, they are non-binary so all pronouns are in play.)
posted by TedW at 1:12 PM on August 3 [16 favorites]
now women get to have equal representation in a dysfunctional pressure-cooker mental-illness-causing nerd hole
yay
seriously, this is good news, but the culture at many caltech departments is a teeeeeeeeensy bit toxic, and the toxicity is not ALL due to sexism/racism
posted by lalochezia at 1:25 PM on August 3 [10 favorites]
yay
seriously, this is good news, but the culture at many caltech departments is a teeeeeeeeensy bit toxic, and the toxicity is not ALL due to sexism/racism
posted by lalochezia at 1:25 PM on August 3 [10 favorites]
Rice, where I did my undergrad, is not totally an engineering school but that's the discipline it's best known for. In fall 2022 the school's gender distribution was at 51% men/49% women. When I was an undergrad in the late 80s, the student body, which was smaller then, was about 2/3 male.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 1:27 PM on August 3
posted by gentlyepigrams at 1:27 PM on August 3
MetaPoint (it is MetaFilter after all): An top engineering school, just 50 years ago, didn't permit women to attend. Gotta love American history.
posted by milnak at 1:42 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
posted by milnak at 1:42 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
Two observations:
When a tech school crows about a gender parity statistic like this, pay attention to whether they are talking about a) incoming students, b) current student body or c) graduating students. Because lots of school have gender parity coming in, but that quickly gets whittled down to something ... a lot worse.
As noted above, Caltech is small at around 1000 undergrads. Cal Poly, in contrast, is at 20,000, more the size of other big tech schools like Purdue and Georgia Tech. MIT is in between at ~5,000.
posted by intermod at 1:52 PM on August 3 [15 favorites]
When a tech school crows about a gender parity statistic like this, pay attention to whether they are talking about a) incoming students, b) current student body or c) graduating students. Because lots of school have gender parity coming in, but that quickly gets whittled down to something ... a lot worse.
As noted above, Caltech is small at around 1000 undergrads. Cal Poly, in contrast, is at 20,000, more the size of other big tech schools like Purdue and Georgia Tech. MIT is in between at ~5,000.
posted by intermod at 1:52 PM on August 3 [15 favorites]
This is great news, and a step forward, however small, is still a step forward.
Thank you for sharing this, drewbage1847!
posted by kristi at 1:55 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
Thank you for sharing this, drewbage1847!
posted by kristi at 1:55 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
Women "outnumber men 1.4 to 1 in undergraduate programs and 1.6 to 1 in graduate programs."
posted by jamjam at 2:09 PM on August 3 [6 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 2:09 PM on August 3 [6 favorites]
When a tech school crows about a gender parity statistic like this, pay attention to whether they are talking about a) incoming students, b) current student body or c) graduating students. Because lots of school have gender parity coming in, but that quickly gets whittled down to something ... a lot worse.
I think they actually covered this in the main link:
"The six-year graduation rate is 93% for self-identified undergraduate women and 91% for men."
posted by sigmagalator at 2:29 PM on August 3 [4 favorites]
I think they actually covered this in the main link:
"The six-year graduation rate is 93% for self-identified undergraduate women and 91% for men."
posted by sigmagalator at 2:29 PM on August 3 [4 favorites]
If either CalTech or MIT had admitted my daughter in 2023 they would have gotten there that much faster. Although they are loving GA Tech and it is certainly much more affordable.
You should be proud - GA Tech may not be as exclusive as CalTech or MIT, but it's still a top-tier engineering school, one of the best in the country last I had occasion to look. If your daughter is doing well there they should be able to write their own ticket!
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:43 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
You should be proud - GA Tech may not be as exclusive as CalTech or MIT, but it's still a top-tier engineering school, one of the best in the country last I had occasion to look. If your daughter is doing well there they should be able to write their own ticket!
posted by Pedantzilla at 2:43 PM on August 3 [8 favorites]
Caltech is an unusual place. It's more like a research institute than a normal university. It has around a 3:2 graduate:undergraduate student body. Most graduate students are doctoral students - few departments have Master's programs. It also has a super-low student:faculty ratio of 3:1 and a high postdoc:student ratio. MIT has roughly the same proportions, scaled up by 4x.
As an example for comparison, Stanford is another STEM-heavy rich private school. It also has a graduate:undergraduate ratio > 1, but substantially lower faculty:student, postdoc:student, and doctoral:master's ratios.
Not sure if there's any point in mentioning these stats. Just observing that the undergraduate program at Caltech is not a typical university undergraduate program.
posted by scose at 2:51 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
As an example for comparison, Stanford is another STEM-heavy rich private school. It also has a graduate:undergraduate ratio > 1, but substantially lower faculty:student, postdoc:student, and doctoral:master's ratios.
Not sure if there's any point in mentioning these stats. Just observing that the undergraduate program at Caltech is not a typical university undergraduate program.
posted by scose at 2:51 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
> I was a freshman at Caltech in 1986 and there were 7 men for each woman in my class.
As a Caltech alumna from a ~decade later described it to me: the odds were good, but the goods were odd.
posted by automatronic at 4:18 PM on August 3 [9 favorites]
As a Caltech alumna from a ~decade later described it to me: the odds were good, but the goods were odd.
posted by automatronic at 4:18 PM on August 3 [9 favorites]
Nothing to add but it’s striking to me sometimes how small some of these elite, household name schools are. I think heard somewhere that cal state Long Beach or whatever has more undergraduates than all the ivies combined
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 4:36 PM on August 3 [4 favorites]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 4:36 PM on August 3 [4 favorites]
I'm also thinking that Amos Throop, based on his photo, has seen some s**t and, quite possibly, is staring at it at that exact moment. That is a face of intense discomfort.
“I was completely disconcerted and confused when the portrait photographer turned out to be a photographess - and even more so when I noticed she was wearing trousers!”
posted by nickmark at 4:49 PM on August 3 [7 favorites]
“I was completely disconcerted and confused when the portrait photographer turned out to be a photographess - and even more so when I noticed she was wearing trousers!”
posted by nickmark at 4:49 PM on August 3 [7 favorites]
Hey neat, one of my former students is in the article. That makes me famous adjacent!
posted by Shutter at 5:20 PM on August 3 [1 favorite]
posted by Shutter at 5:20 PM on August 3 [1 favorite]
@MisantropicPainforest Yes, our national discourse about higher education is often *very* distorted by the attention and resources given to a very small number of institutions who educate a very low percentage of all of the students in colleges and universities in the United States. It's especially frustrating that the oldest university - Harvard - gets so much attention when it's miles away from being representative of higher education.
posted by ElKevbo at 5:49 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
posted by ElKevbo at 5:49 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
MetaPoint (it is MetaFilter after all): A top engineering school, just 50 years ago, didn't permit women to attend. Gotta love American history.Recent history. Yale and Princeton only started admitting female undergraduates in 1969, Dartmouth in 1972, and Columbia in 1983.
posted by Songdog at 6:14 PM on August 3 [5 favorites]
@MisanthropicPainforest - not quite, total Ivy undergrad population is 64k. CSU Long Beach is 38k.
But there are less undergrads at all the Ivies put together than at Arizona State.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:25 PM on August 3 [1 favorite]
But there are less undergrads at all the Ivies put together than at Arizona State.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:25 PM on August 3 [1 favorite]
Rice College (now university) first started admitting women in 1912.
White women, that is. The first Black students weren't admitted until around 1965.
That's also when they stopped being free. It's a complicated story involving the endowment terms and a bunch of racist alumni.
posted by Nelson at 6:40 PM on August 3 [6 favorites]
White women, that is. The first Black students weren't admitted until around 1965.
That's also when they stopped being free. It's a complicated story involving the endowment terms and a bunch of racist alumni.
posted by Nelson at 6:40 PM on August 3 [6 favorites]
My undergraduate dorm was originally constructed as the women's dorm when the university first began admitting women, in 1940. Men were not allowed to enter at all, but the building was constructed with a porch to allow male students to come court the women. To accommodate their visits, the building has an unusual architectural feature: a bathroom that's accessible only from the porch. By the time I got there, the dorm hadn't been single-sex for a long time, but the porch bathroom was maintained due to its historical interest, and was actually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Anyway, I'm pretty shocked that Caltech has only finally hit gender parity in its admissions this year. I was actually offered admission to Caltech and went to their Prefrosh Weekend recruiting event, though there was no way I could have afforded to attend. But I remember at the time, over 20 years ago, them talking about how they were working to improve gender parity in their undergrad population. Doesn't seem like they were working all that hard at it...
posted by biogeo at 9:32 PM on August 3 [3 favorites]
Anyway, I'm pretty shocked that Caltech has only finally hit gender parity in its admissions this year. I was actually offered admission to Caltech and went to their Prefrosh Weekend recruiting event, though there was no way I could have afforded to attend. But I remember at the time, over 20 years ago, them talking about how they were working to improve gender parity in their undergrad population. Doesn't seem like they were working all that hard at it...
posted by biogeo at 9:32 PM on August 3 [3 favorites]
Not sure what the admissions statistics look like, but Harvey Mudd College’s student body (~930) has hovered just shy of 50/50 for the last several years.
posted by jimw at 9:38 PM on August 3 [3 favorites]
posted by jimw at 9:38 PM on August 3 [3 favorites]
I was admitted to CalTech back in the day but the enormous gender disparity was one of the reasons I turned them down.
This wasn't helped any by the stories told to me by a female friend who did go there and complained about the harassment she received there.
So, good, I guess. Numbers are important of course but hopefully they also signal or drive a cultural change.
posted by vacapinta at 5:09 AM on August 4 [4 favorites]
This wasn't helped any by the stories told to me by a female friend who did go there and complained about the harassment she received there.
So, good, I guess. Numbers are important of course but hopefully they also signal or drive a cultural change.
posted by vacapinta at 5:09 AM on August 4 [4 favorites]
Almost all Caltech students are in science and engineering, so the pertinent comparison might be to those departments in other universities. For example the University of Washington has 56% female students according to this, but its College of Engineering has 32 - 35 % female students according to this.
posted by JonJacky at 10:18 AM on August 4 [1 favorite]
posted by JonJacky at 10:18 AM on August 4 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Couple of grammar policing comments removed. Maybe MeMail the OP so they can have the team fix it? No need for snarky gifs. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:57 AM on August 4 [5 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:57 AM on August 4 [5 favorites]
I've been on admissions committees. This is not the achievement Caltech seems to think it is—especially with such a small first-year class at such a selective institution.
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on August 3
Thank you so much for calling this out, vitia. I work in tech, but I'm no STEM wizard, so apologies if I'm making a rooking mistake here but I assume an institution like Caltech has more than ~110 young women applying for ~220 seats each year? Surely some of those lady applicants have been qualified to attend Caltech, perhaps even ~120 or so, give or take maybe ~5.
Someone help me with my boymath, I must be missing something big here. I've been adulting for less than 20 years now so I'm no veteran but I'm pretty sure I've heard at least one woman in STEM bring this up before. Cynthia Solomon definitely pointed it out in like 1994 when she was teaching me a dialect of LISP she'd invented, Mitchel Resnick was loud about it too at the time.
So... why is this milestone happening in 2024? People were advocating for this in 1994, loudly. Who has been advocating against them? What has been a higher priority to the people making decisions?
posted by 1024 at 11:40 AM on August 4 [5 favorites]
posted by vitia at 11:14 AM on August 3
Thank you so much for calling this out, vitia. I work in tech, but I'm no STEM wizard, so apologies if I'm making a rooking mistake here but I assume an institution like Caltech has more than ~110 young women applying for ~220 seats each year? Surely some of those lady applicants have been qualified to attend Caltech, perhaps even ~120 or so, give or take maybe ~5.
Someone help me with my boymath, I must be missing something big here. I've been adulting for less than 20 years now so I'm no veteran but I'm pretty sure I've heard at least one woman in STEM bring this up before. Cynthia Solomon definitely pointed it out in like 1994 when she was teaching me a dialect of LISP she'd invented, Mitchel Resnick was loud about it too at the time.
So... why is this milestone happening in 2024? People were advocating for this in 1994, loudly. Who has been advocating against them? What has been a higher priority to the people making decisions?
posted by 1024 at 11:40 AM on August 4 [5 favorites]
Looking at the numbers for last year that Caltech published: "13,136 applicants, with 42% identifying as female and 58% as male". So that lean is already going to put some natural "lean" from the pool composition. (I'm going to assume that the female applicants are more largely made up of qualified candidates and that there's a larger %age of guys applying "because").
Assuming that the class size is the same"ish", then that's about 1.5-1.7% acceptance, which is brutal. In comparison, MIT admits 5.5% of female applicants and 3% of male applicants, which is still brutal.
posted by drewbage1847 at 6:58 PM on August 4
Assuming that the class size is the same"ish", then that's about 1.5-1.7% acceptance, which is brutal. In comparison, MIT admits 5.5% of female applicants and 3% of male applicants, which is still brutal.
posted by drewbage1847 at 6:58 PM on August 4
@drewbage1847: not quite, because not all admitted students accept. Caltech's admission rate is about 3% according to US News. This consulting firm puts their admission rate at 3.14% and their yield at 64.56% (that is, about 65% of admitted students enroll). Something doesn't quite add up about all these numbers, but I have numbers I need to reconcile for my job so I'm not going to dig deeper.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:24 AM on August 5 [1 favorite]
posted by madcaptenor at 6:24 AM on August 5 [1 favorite]
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posted by Pedantzilla at 10:57 AM on August 3 [56 favorites]