Ivy question

Yes. One is at the top of the list due to *in state* tuition. ;-) Also, they have a sophomore on the roster who is there on a free ride, who came from my daughter's TB club.

My only point was that of the D1 schools (Big 10, ACC, Patriot League, CAA, A10, Big East) on my DD's list, their rosters include very few (~10%) *hard core* engineering and science majors, and none have included any computer science majors. There's a reason why only 24% of females are computer science majors, and I would bet it's the same reason why less than 1% of D1 softball players are computer science majors; i.e. if it was easy, everyone would do it. ;-)

Orange Socks said:

Do those schools offer that major? Shouldn't deter your DD if she is interested in that school.

Click to expand...

Yes, in these cases including my DD, academics is the priority, since realistically none are top 64 school talent, and won't be making a living playing softball professionally.

As far as the pre-med girl I mentioned, DD was told that by her former pitching coach who was also pre-med girl's pitching coach and directly involved in her recruiting process.

Thanks for the well wishes.

Weather permitting this am... Let fall ball tournament season begin!

MNDad said:

If by “major” you’re talking top 10 softball schools it would be extremely difficult for a girl to keep her talent high enough to see the field and the grades high enough to get into med school. In a case like that I’d say she chose academics over softball so essentially we’d agree. If by “major” you’re including the rest of the P5’s I can tell you for a fact its academics first. I’ve heard stories of coaches who wouldn’t allow certain majors or said softball comes first. I’ve never heard it directly or from any parents or girls who actually played for one of those schools. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist, I just have reason to doubt it based on firsthand experience.

We’ll just have to disagree on “soft” majors. Good luck to your DD whichever path she takes.

Click to expand...

vicimus said:

Yes. One is at the top of the list due to *in state* tuition. ;-) Also, they have a sophomore on the roster who is there on a free ride, who came from my daughter's TB club.

My only point was that of the D1 schools (Big 10, ACC, Patriot League, CAA, A10, Big East) on my DD's list, their rosters include very few (~10%) *hard core* engineering and science majors, and none have included any computer science majors. There's a reason why only 24% of females are computer science majors, and I would bet it's the same reason why less than 1% of D1 softball players are computer science majors; i.e. if it was easy, everyone would do it. ;-)

Click to expand...

What is the percentage of Engineers/CS majors at those schools in general, e.g. of the total student body what is the percentage of Engineering/CS majors? For example here at OU, out of a total enrollment of 28000, 4000 are Engineering majors.. I played D3 baseball at Tufts for a few years and besides me, there was only 1 other Engineer and 1 CS major on a roster which was close to 30 kids. I would expect sports to have a slightly lower
percentage, but in general there are always less kids in the more time intensive majors unless you are at a technical school like MIT. Also a major reason less females are CS majors (or engineers,scientists) is that our society , STILL to this day, puts kids in a box at a young age and that box is shaped by ill-conceived stereotypes.

Obviously, it varies from school to school, but here are some examples that are on DD's list...

University of Maryland (Big 10) which is the #14 computer science program in the country, has ZERO computer science majors on the softball roster, yet has 3k+ computer science majors out of 28k+ undergraduate students.

Villanova (Big East) has ZERO computer science majors on the softball roster with 172 computer science majors out of 11k+ undergraduate students.

George Mason University (A10) has ZERO computer science majors on the softball roster, yet computer science is the #1 major with 1,800+ computer science majors out of 23k+ undergraduate students.

Penn State (Big 10) has ZERO computer science majors on the softball roster with 455 computer science majors out of 46k+ undergraduate students.

On the smaller side, I can't find any computer science numbers for Bucknell (Patriot League), but they have ZERO computer science majors on the softball roster with 3,600+ undergraduate students.

With all due respect you couldn't be more wrong about blaming society stereotypes on why there are so few female computer science majors. If you want to blame society on anything, blame it on piss-poor parenting and the Kardashian factor!

In fact, the very first programmer (way back in the London Victorian Age!) was Ada Lovelace (https://iq.intel.com/ada-lovelace-the-first-computer-programmer/). ;-) In 1995, 37% of computer scientists were women. Today, it’s only 24%. See https://girlswhocode.com/about-us for details. At best the only stereotype that may have been in play is the *geek* stereotype, but now that geeks rule the world, now there's less of a deterrent, yet women computer science majors are down.

I've been in the computing industry for almost 30 years, and I can count on half a hand how many women colleagues I've worked with that have encouraged their daughters to pursue a computer science degree; however, I have exactly one DD, and I've sent her to coding camps since she was 10, and I've educated her how a computer science degree is THE BEST ROI of any other college major. I've laid out for her how she will be making $80-$100K upon graduation with a computer science degree in this market. Furthermore, thanks to the push to get women and minorities into computer science, she won't have to work half as hard as I have in the last 30 years. ;-)

Thankfully, she gets it, and likes it!

pattar said:

What is the percentage of Engineers/CS majors at those schools in general, e.g. of the total student body what is the percentage of Engineering/CS majors? For example here at OU, out of a total enrollment of 28000, 4000 are Engineering majors.. I played D3 baseball at Tufts for a few years and besides me, there was only 1 other Engineer and 1 CS major on a roster which was close to 30 kids. I would expect sports to have a slightly lower
percentage, but in general there are always less kids in the more time intensive majors unless you are at a technical school like MIT. Also a major reason less females are CS majors (or engineers,scientists) is that our society , STILL to this day, puts kids in a box at a young age and that box is shaped by ill-conceived stereotypes.

Click to expand...

vicimus said:

With all due respect you couldn't be more wrong about blaming society stereotypes on why there are so few female computer science majors. If you want to blame society on anything, blame it on piss-poor parenting and the Kardashian factor!

Click to expand...

The stereotyping I am talking about is partly done by the parents and hence is part of the piss-poor parenting you refer to. If those same CS colleague parents had boys, would they encourage them
to do CS? If yes, then by not doing so with their DD's they are likely using some form (perhaps even unconsciously) of stereotyping. Same thing happens in Engineering. I am lucky to have 1 girl in
a class 20 students here at OU.

Vicimus...Please see the PM I sent you.

After further review, I'd say those who did not encourage their DDs, either did not have any sons, or did not encourage their sons either; however, the ones that did encourage their DDs and had sons, encouraged both.

So, again, I blame these parents first and foremost, who are living the fruits of a computer science degree, and not the rest of *society* in general. Just to clarify though, there's a huge difference between *not encouraging* and *discouraging*, the latter of which I've never seen with these parents in question.

Again, it's been my experience that there's ample opportunities for both boys and girls to pursue computer science (esp. girls and minorities now that there's a major push for diversity), but too many choose to pursue the *easy* less-math/science-related paths. See Kardashians for details.

Besides, once they get to high school, they have a mind of their own anyway, so there's no excuses for *society* AFAIC.

pattar said:

The stereotyping I am talking about is partly done by the parents and hence is part of the piss-poor parenting you refer to. If those same CS colleague parents had boys, would they encourage them
to do CS? If yes, then by not doing so with their DD's they are likely using some form (perhaps even unconsciously) of stereotyping. Same thing happens in Engineering. I am lucky to have 1 girl in
a class 20 students here at OU.

Click to expand...

vicimus said:

DD dreams of playing D1, goes to a prep school and is going to be a computer science major which I have yet to find on any D1 roster. I was a computer science major and have concerns about how a D1 sport would be possible especially in cold weather schools where they usually play the vast majority of their games on the road.

Click to expand...

Here's one on a D1 roster:

Bailey Thompson Bio - Seattle University

HA! Nice! That's what we call a *deep pull*. ;-)

Good to know one actually exists! Should be interesting to see if she's still a computer science major by her junior year, since she's a freshman. :-D

Unfortunately, DD's college list is restricted to east coast, but thanks for finding that unicorn for us! ;-)

The Devil's Advocate said:

Here's one on a D1 roster:

Bailey Thompson Bio - Seattle University

Click to expand...

My DD got a 35 on her ACT and we also thought that her Ivy choice would give her a spot. But at that point her score worked against her - the coach wanted her to get in on her own and walk on. The coach only had 3 spots for that year and my DD was further down her depth chart. Bottom line is that it will come down to softball and whether the coach thinks your DD will help her win games, period.