Women outnumber men at UT, and college-age women care more about having a successful, high-paying career, according to recent research.

For the last four years, the enrollment of women at the University has exceeded male enrollment. These figures are reflective of new survey data from the Pew Research Center, which found that a high-paying career is “one of the most important things” in the lives of young women with college degrees.

Pew found that 66 percent of women 18 to 34 years old are interested in having a successful career or profession — a 10 percent increase from the last time Pew collected the poll data in 1997. Men rose 1 percentage point to 59 percent.

Female enrollment makes up about half of the total enrollment at the University and 51.3 percent of total undergraduate enrollment, according to data from the Office of Information Management and Analysis.

Both freshmen and summer enrollment is higher for women, while male students are more likely to transfer into the University. The rising trend of female enrollment will continue into 2012, when women will receive 56 percent of offers of admission, said Gary Lavergne, program manager for the Office of Admissions.

Lavergne said the University receives more applications from women than men. Men generally have higher standardized test scores than women, while women have higher high school class ranks. Women also tend to submit their applications before male applicants.

Last year, female undergraduate University students also outscored their male counterparts in terms of cumulative grade point averages with a higher average GPA in every college.

Still, men outnumber women within some of the University’s colleges, including the McCombs School of Business, the Cockrell School of Engineering and the School of Law. Men also outnumber women in the College of Natural Sciences, but only by 4 percent.

Tricia Berry, director of the Women in Engineering program at the Cockrell School of Engineering, said the percentage of women majoring in engineering at the University is higher than the national average, despite the number of men doubling the number of women enrolled in the college.

The Women in Engineering program plays a large role in the recruitment and retention of female students, she said.

Women have also reached a “record-high divergence” in terms of bachelor’s degrees. According to Pew research, 36 percent of women in the 29 to 35 year-old age group had a bachelor’s degree in 2010 compared to 28 percent of men of the same age.

“Schools like Purdue University or Ohio State that have this kind of program tend to have a higher percentage of women in their schools like us,” Berry said. “I think it’s the dedicated effort of a program like Women in Engineering that shows students that we value women in the field and that we want them to be successful in school.”

Pew’s data also showed an increased regard for a successful career “has not come at the expense of the importance they place on marriage and family.” Marriage and family combined continue to rank higher than a successful career for both young men and women.

Jennifer Scalora, senior program coordinator for the Plan II Honors program, said women also outnumber male students in the honors program. In previous years, female students have made up anywhere between 58 to 62 percent of the program. This year, 57 percent of the program’s students are women.

“The trend is true across the board, not just in the honors program,” Scalora said. “But women are scoring better [than before] in standardized tests and more are applying to honors programs.”

Printed on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 as: UT statistics reflect trend, more women strive for success