Nicholas Slater was sitting in his health class of about 50 students when he noticed something bizarre about his class.
“I’m a guy,” the UF psychology and sociology sophomore said. “I look around, and there’s only four other guys in here.”
But he said he didn’t mind being surrounded by more women in the classroom.
“It’s kind of nice,” he said, with a laugh. “To be honest, I wouldn’t want to go to a university with a lot of guys.”
Slater picked up on a national trend that is growing at UF. National college enrollment is now 57 percent female and 43 percent male.
According to UF spokesman Steve Orlando, six out of 10 new UF students will be women in fall 2010, which is the largest gender gap favoring female students that UF has ever had. UF’s fall 2009 enrollment was 54 percent female and 46 percent male, according to the UF Office of Institutional Planning and Research.
UF is aware of the gap but not doing anything to balance the numbers, Orlando said. But he said the school isn’t discriminating against male applicants.
“Boys wouldn’t be admitted because they’re boys,” he said. “Girls are being admitted because they are doing the things to be admitted and boys aren’t.”
