U.S. women are outpacing men in college completion in every major group

Discipline and Major Differences

• Commenters note large gender splits by major: women heavily in fields like fashion, interior design, elementary education; men in construction management and mechanical/electrical engineering.
• CS is still described as male-dominated, despite being seen as a high-return degree.
• Some wonder how women perform in math and note historical female dominance in early computing.

Trades vs. College Pathways

• One view: men have more viable non-degree options (construction, skilled trades), which draws them away from college; women see college as the clearest path to good office/professional jobs.
• Others argue this reverses cause and effect: boys underperform in high school first; that constrains college options rather than reflecting a deliberate trade-school choice.
• BLS-linked data leads to debate over how “big” the trades sector really is and how many jobs it represents.

Earnings, Debt, and Degree Value

• Some argue “most degrees aren’t worth it,” especially low-ROI majors, and fear women will end up with more debt and weaker job prospects.
• Others push back, claiming rising female pay and continued value of degrees overall, especially in fields like CS.
• Shared stats suggest typical US student loan debt is in the tens of thousands, not “hundreds of thousands,” though private/out-of-state routes can be far more expensive.
• Trades pay is described as roughly around the national median for employees, with higher potential for union or self-employed workers, but with physical wear-and-tear risks.

Admissions, Signaling, and Credential Inflation

• Discussion of state-school selectivity, grade inflation, and changing GPA/SAT thresholds; some remember much easier admissions a decade or two ago.
• Many see degrees as primarily a persistence/conformity and intelligence signal rather than specific training, and describe “credential inflation” in tech roles.
• Self-taught programmers report being blocked or underleveled without formal degrees despite extensive experience.

Gender Gaps, Discrimination, and Support Programs

• Some commenters report positive experiences of women in CS programs and question narratives of constant “torture,” especially given women-only scholarships, clubs, and camps.
• Others share strong accounts of sexism, dismissal, and harassment in math/physics/CS, including in Europe.
• Debate over causes of field-level differences: marketing of early PCs to boys, cultural expectations, and gatekeeping vs. intrinsic preferences.
• Tension around continued women-focused initiatives now that women outnumber men in college; some call for similar support for struggling boys, others emphasize long histories of exclusion.

Boys, Schooling, and Mental Health

• Widespread concern that K–12 environments fit girls better and pathologize typical boy behavior, feeding lower male academic performance.
• Heated subthread on ADHD medications for children: some see them as a crude tool of control with long-term brain effects; others say comparisons to “castration” or lobotomy are exaggerated but agree overprescription is worrying.

Broader Social Reflections

• Observations of male overrepresentation among the homeless contrasted with female-majority campuses; causes (mental health, incarceration, economics, relationships) are disputed.
• Multiple comments worry about a lack of positive male role models and about young men drifting toward grievance-based influencers and oppositional gender politics.
• Others remind that women’s higher enrollment is a recent reversal after long exclusion, and argue that gaps in either direction shouldn’t be celebrated but addressed for everyone.