The gap between the number of men and women on campus was smaller last year than in recent years, and the University's growing emphasis on the sciences may have something to do with it.
In the 2004-05 academic year, the percentage of female undergraduates was 53.7 percent, but in the current academic year 51.9 percent of undergraduates are female, a 1.8 percentage point drop, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.
Despite the decrease in female enrollment over the last several years, however, the percentage of female undergraduates is slightly up from last year, when 51.4 percent of undergrads were female.
OIR conducts its annual census in October of each academic year.
The narrowing gap may be partly explained by the University's growing commitment to the sciences in facilities, the curriculum and admission.
Brown is trying to increase the number of students interested in the sciences and engineering, said Dean of Admission Jim Miller '73. "We have been focusing a bit more on the sciences in the admission process," Miller said. "At least at this point, men tend to be more heavily represented in the sciences."
Miller added that Brown is looking for female scientists. The Women in Science and Engineering program, founded in the 1990s, seeks to generate and maintain interest among women in the sciences.
Many more women apply to Brown than men. Last fall over 60 percent of the applicant pool was female. That number is slightly higher than the previous two cycles, in which women made up 58 percent of the pool.
Though the acceptance rates for men are higher than for women, Miller said the University's admission process is "gender-blind."
Between 2004 and 2006 the admit rates for men were 3 to 4 percent higher than for women, according to data obtained from the Office of Institutional Research's Web site.
"We're trying to admit the best class we can admit, and gender falls where it falls," Miller said. In 2006 the University admitted 1,341 women and 1,190 men.
Some of the factors that affect the gender gap are out of the University's hands. Miller said Brown does not control the composition of two of the three components in the admission process: the people who apply and the people who matriculate. "The composition of the class, ultimately, is who shows up," Miller said.
The percentage yield of women in the Class of 2011, for instance, was higher than for men, Miller said.
The gender gap at Brown reflects a national trend, as more women than men across the country are seeking undergraduate degrees.
Brown is in line with its peer schools.
The Herald reported in April that the percentage of female students at Brown is slightly larger than it is at other Ivy League schools. Last year, Yale University's female enrollment rate was 49.3 percent, and the University of Pennsylvania was 51.9 percent female.
Tracy Barnes, coordinator for institutional research, said that it takes many years of moving data to indicate a trend. "Change from one year to another," she said, "may or may not actually reflect a trend."
