© Max PetroskyA rare male student at Carlow University in Pittsburgh, where women outnumber men by more than six to one, Vinny Bucci said his male friends from high school chose vocational training over college. In colleges and universities nationwide this year, more than 56 percent of students are women.
"There's one," she said.
It was, in fact, an unusual bird that Smith had spotted, especially on this campus: masculum collegium discipulus. A male college student.
Women outnumber men by more than six to one here at Carlow University, where Smith is a senior and an orientation leader who was preparing to welcome incoming freshmen.
That's an extreme example of a surprising shift besetting all of higher education.
Where men once went to college in proportions far higher than women-58 percent to 42 percent as recently as the 1970s-the ratio has now almost exactly reversed.
Comment: Perhaps some students should take a gap year after high school and acquire real world experience before settling on a life course at the ripe old age of 18.