Examining the Gender Gap in College Application Rates

A new report from the Department of Education finds that women are more likely to apply to college than men. The data showed that in 2004, 87 percent of women high school seniors had applied to college by 2006. For male high school seniors in 2004, only 79 percent applied to college by 2006.

If the data is broken down by racial and ethnic group, we find that in each group, women were more likely to apply to college than were men. The smallest margin was among Asian Americans. Some 94 percent of Asian women high school seniors applied to college compared to 89 percent of Asian men.

The largest gap was among American Indians. For women, 84 percent of American Indians applied to college. This was 17 percentage points higher than the rate for American Indian men.

The full report, entitled Higher Education: Gaps in Access and Persistence Study, can be accessed here.