Report Examines Gender Differences Among the Incoming Class of 2024 at U.S. Colleges and Universities

A team of researchers from the American Council on Education and the University of California, Los Angeles has released a new report on their findings from the 2024 CIRP Freshman Survey, the longest-running survey about the experiences and perspectives of incoming college freshman. The report draws from data on over 24,000 incoming college students, 55 percent of whom are women.

A larger share of incoming college women (78.8 percent) earned grades of A-, A, or A+ in high school, than their male peers (72.1 percent). Despite their strong academic performance before college, women were less confident in their intellectual abilities. According to the survey, some two-thirds of women rated their academic ability as above average, compared to 75.8 percent of men. Women’s confidence in their mathematical ability was even lower, with only 36.9 percent of women rating their math skills as above average, compared to 58.2 percent of men.

Since its inception, the survey has asked students about a multitude of factors affecting their college decisions. For this year’s iteration, a newly added survey item asked students about the importance of state politics and legislation when choosing which college to attend. One-third of incoming college men considered state politics in their college decisions, compared to 39.1 percent of women and 56.3 percent of students with other gender identities.

The survey also revealed gender disparities in the emotional well-being of incoming college freshman. Women were more than twice as likely as men to report frequently feeling overwhelmed (51 percent versus 24 percent) or anxious (46 percent versus 21 percent) during their final year of high school. Students outside the gender binary were even more likely to report emotional distress, with 71.5 percent of this group indicating they felt frequently overwhelmed, 73.4 percent experiencing anxiety, and 91 percent reporting at least occasional bouts of depression during their last year of high school.

Gender disparities were also uncovered among incoming college freshmen’s social behaviors. While students of all gender identities reported similar social media use, students outside the gender binary were less likely (49.9 percent) than men (64.8 percent) and women (62 percent) to report they socialize with friends in person for at least six hours per week. Women college freshman were slightly less likely than their peers to watch TV or online video content and significantly less likely to play video games for six or more hours per week.

The CIRP Freshman survey is administered annually by the Higher Education Research Institute, a partnership between the American Council on Education and the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies. HERI is housed within UCLA’s Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.