Boys are also falling behind in high school, with a growing gender gap in high school graduation rates. According to the Brooking Institution, in 2018, about 88% of girls graduated on time, compared with 82% of boys. There are many issues that contribute to this gap,  but education researchers cite two factors in particular.  First, the US education system prioritizes rule-following and organization over active learning, and second, there's a shortage of male teachers and college counselors — particularly men of color. Neither of those factors is new, but changes in the labor market over the last four decades have given them new significance. A 2011 study found that girls start school with more advanced social and behavioral skills, whereas boys are more likely to have difficulty paying attention or sitting still in class. 



Admissions officers are working hard to address this growing problem, taking steps to balance out the number of men and women in the incoming class. “Toward the end of filling out the class, there would definitely be a push to look for more men to admit,” said Shayna Medley, former admissions officer at Brandeis University. A noncomprehensive review of admissions data shows that many other selective colleges have higher admission rates for men. These include Boston College, Bowdoin, Swarthmore Brown, Denison, Pepperdine, Pomona, Vanderbilt and Wesleyan universities; and the University of Miami. At each school, men were at least 2 percentage points more likely than women to be accepted in both 2019 and 2020.