Is It a Myth That Women’s Colleges Are Safer?

In the US, less than 20% of arrests for most crime categories consist of women. It’s exactly because of this why you may be wondering if attending a women’s college can help keep you out of harm’s way.

A CollegeStats.com report said that up to 72% of women’s college alumni members felt safe on campus. On the other hand, only 64% of private co-educational female alumni members felt free of danger. Less than half of female alumni members of flagship state schools said that they felt safe on campus.

Can’t wait to start earning a degree but fear that something bad might happen to you in the process? Read on.

In this article, we will discuss just about everything that could help you graduate from college in one piece, such as which women’s college you should include on your college list and which institutions for higher education, both all-women and mixed-gender ones, are considered some of the safest schools in the US to attend.

But before anything else, let us answer this pressing question…

Why Do Some Women Prefer Going to Women’s Colleges?

In general, the top reasons why some women prefer attending women’s colleges are a smaller student population, less gender inequality, and women empowerment. Most women’s colleges also have partnerships with local colleges, some of which are elite.

Before you fill your college list with nothing but women’s colleges, there is something that you need to know. And it’s none other than attending women’s colleges, believe it or not, is not for every female student.

For instance, you might want to consider attending a co-educational college or university if you feel that not having all the socialization and romantic prospects you can get can keep you from having the most enriching academic experience possible.

Keep in mind that well-rounded applicants are what employers prefer to hire.

Speaking of which, after graduation, you will be competing not only with female applicants but male applicants, too.

It’s due to this exactly why, if you feel that the competition against male classmates can help to increase your job market value, then a women’s college may not be the best kind of institution for higher education for you.

But there are many perks that come with attending women’s colleges, which is why some female junior and senior high school students are eager to apply to them. Some examples are:

Smaller student body

Most women’s colleges have less than 3,000 students. That’s a good thing because it means that only a few people will have to share the facilities. Also, a smaller population usually means a smaller student-to-faculty ratio.

More gender equality

Unfortunately, sexism is something that still exists in this day and age. Attending a women’s college means that it is less likely for you to feel discriminated against because of your gender.

Female domination

Some women tend to perform less well in programs dominated by males. With all programs certain to be female-dominated at women’s colleges, having a poor performance should be the least of your concerns.

Robust alumnae base

It’s not uncommon for graduates of women’s colleges to have strong ties to their alma mater. This will come in handy when the time comes when you have to take your resume from one company to the other to apply for a job.

Co-ed experience

Many women’s colleges are partners with local co-educational institutions. This allows the students of partnered institutions to take classes at both schools, thus allowing female students to interact with male counterparts.

Do Women Feel Safer Attending Women’s Colleges?

The fact that some female students admit to feeling safer at women’s colleges is nothing new. As a matter of fact, they are not the only ones that attain peace of mind while earning their degrees at women’s colleges but transgender women, too, whom a lot of today’s US women’s colleges admit.

Earlier, we established the fact that there’s a wide variety of reasons why some college-bound females prefer to go to women’s colleges instead of their co-educational counterparts.

Knowing that they are safer there than anywhere else is just one of the many different reasons.

According to the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), which is a Switzerland-based publisher of open access scientific journals and has supported academic communities since 1996, women’s colleges have long provided women a safe environment where they are placed right in the center of academic pursuits.

These days, however, cisgender women, or females whose gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth, are not the only ones who find that women’s colleges are safer institutions.

Some transgender women also prefer going to women’s colleges over co-educational institutions because, pretty much like the majority of their cisgender counterparts, transgender women also feel that, because female empowerment takes precedence, these schools are much safer places where they can complete their chosen programs.

Fortunately for them, there are only a few women’s colleges that do not accept transgender women.

A lot of women’s colleges in the US these days have a published policy about welcoming transgender women on their campuses.

As a matter of fact, in 2014, Mills College, which is a private women’s liberal arts college in Oakland, California, was the very first US women’s college to have explicitly allowed anyone who self-identifies as female to apply.

It’s not just various women’s colleges in the land that are supportive of transgender women who would like to get their hands on a degree. Cisgender women attending women’s colleges, too, are as accommodating.

Based on surveys conducted in recent years where the participants are students at women’s colleges, it’s evident that the majority of cisgender women support various practices of protecting transgender women as well as an assortment of trans-inclusive policies, including but not limited to:

• Having more gender-neutral bathrooms in public areas.
• Allowance of transgender women to use women-only bathrooms.
• Ability of transgender women to serve in the military openly.
• Support for school and workplace protection policies.

Top Women’s Colleges

Wellesley College, Smith College, Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College and St. Catherine University are some of the highest-ranking women’s colleges in the US. Different college rankers use different factors, which is why a school’s ranking tends to fluctuate from list to list.

You should refrain from allowing college ranking sites to decide which institutions you should apply to. However, you can rely on them each time you are torn between colleges and universities that seem alike.

There are many factors to consider when building a college list. Unfortunately, campus safety is just one of them. It’s also a must to consider things such as academics, value, diversity, student life — anything that can make your college experience outstanding instead of terrifying.

Below, you will come across some of the top women’s colleges in the US.

Well, at least according to two college ranking sites: Niche and CollegeChoice. I have left out US News, which is arguably one of the most popular college rankers on the planet, as it doesn’t have a ranking of women’s colleges. The one it has only ranked liberal colleges that accept women only — not all women’s colleges are liberal arts schools.

So, without any more ado…

WOMEN’S COLLEGE	LOCATION	NICHE RANKING	COLLEGECHOICE RANKING
Agnes Scott College	Decatur, Georgia	#8	#19
Alverno College	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	#19	#13
Barnard College	New York City, New York	#1	#4
Bay Path University	Longmeadow, Massachusetts	#15	#33
Bennett College	Greensboro, North Carolina	#30	#23
Bryn Mawr College	Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania	#5	#3
Cedar Crest College	Allentown, Pennsylvania	N/A	#11
College of Saint Benedict	Saint Joseph, Minnesota	#11	#22
College of Saint Mary	Omaha, Nebraska	#13	#30
Converse College	Spartanburg, South Carolina	N/A	#11
Cottey College	Nevada, Missouri	#24	#34
Hollins University	Hollins, Virginia	#7	#21
Meredith College	Raleigh, North Carolina	#16	#5
Mills College	Oakland, California	#18	#16
Mount Holyoke College	South Hadley, Massachusetts	#4	#7
Mount Mary University	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	#20	#14
Mount Saint Mary’s University – LA	Los Angeles, California	#12	N/A
Notre Dame of Maryland University	Baltimore, Maryland	#21	#10
Salem College	Winston-Salem, North Carolina	#22	#24
Scripps College	Claremont, California	#6	#15
Simmons University	Boston, Massachusetts	#14	#6
Smith College	Northampton, Massachusetts	#3	#2
Spelman College	Atlanta, Georgia	#10	#31
St. Catherine University	Saint Paul, Minnesota	#9	#8
Stephens College	Columbia, Missouri	#28	N/A
Sweet Briar College	Sweet Briar, Virginia	#25	#27
Ursuline College	Pepper Pike, Ohio	#26	#9
Wellesley College	Wellesley, Massachusetts	#2	#1
Wesleyan College	Macon, Georgia	#29	#28

Most college ranking sites consider campus safety when deciding where on the list a school should go.

For instance, in the case of Niche, the factor “Safety Grade” has a weight of 2.5%. On the other hand, campus safety is not a part of the methodology of CollegeChoice — Academic Quality and Program Offerings are some of the top factors.

Safest Colleges in the US

There are many safe colleges in the country, including co-educational ones. According to a group about various security systems, some of the safest US campuses include the University of Connecticut, Brigham Young University, New York University, Washington State University and Clemson University.

Want to build a college list consisting of nothing but women’s colleges where students don’t have to fear for their lives all the time, thus allowing them to focus so much better on their studies? You have plenty of options.

However, your choices can be more extensive if you don’t mind applying to schools men and women share.

Refrain from assuming that just because a college or university is not exclusive to ladies means that you should be on high alert whenever you are on campus. Checking out various college rankings of the safest institutions in the US, you will come to the realization that many of them are co-educational.

For instance, Safe at Last has a list of the Safest Colleges in America in 2021.

The website’s goal is to provide people with accurate information about various security systems, thus enabling them to choose which ones suit their needs best. Safe at Last also posts various safety guides, from health safety, sports safety to online security.

The website itself says that the methodology used in ranking the safest US colleges and universities incorporated local data, campus crime rates, campus transparency, local crime and law enforcement support.

So, here’s the 2021 Safest Colleges in America ranking by Safe at Last…

RANKING	NAME	LOCATION	US NEWS RANKING
1	University of Connecticut	Mansfield, Connecticut	#63 in National Universities
2	Brigham Young University	Rexburg, Idaho	#79 in National Universities
3	New York University	New York City, New York	#28 in National Universities
4	Washington State University	Pullman, Washington	#179 in National Universities
5	Clemson University	Clemson, South Carolina	#75 in National Universities
6	Pennsylvania State University	State College, Pennsylvania	#63 in National Universities
7	University of New Hampshire	Durham, New Hampshire	#136 in National Universities
8	Purdue University	West Lafayette, Indiana	#49 in National Universities
9	University of Maryland – College Park	College Park, Maryland	#59 in National Universities
10	Corban University	Salem, Oregon	#12 in Regional Colleges West
11	Michigan State University	East Lansing, Michigan	#83 in National Universities
12	University of California – Irvine	Irvine, California	#36 in National Universities
13	University of Michigan	Ann Arbor, Michigan	#23 in National Universities
14	New York Institute of Technology	Old Westbury, New York	#34 in Regional Universities North
15	California State University – San Marcos	San Marcos, California	#41 in Regional Universities West
16	Stockton University	Galloway Township, New Jersey	#34 in Regional Universities North
17	Tennessee State University	Nashville, Tennessee	#299 to #391 in National Universities
18	Iowa State University	Ames, Iowa	#122 in National Universities
19	Rogers State University	Claremore, Oklahoma	#25 in Regional Colleges West
20	Elon University	Elon, North Carolina	#83 in National Universities
21	Albany State University	Albany, Georgia	#104 to #137 in Regional Universities South
22	Lehigh University	Bethlehem, Pennsylvania	#49 in National Universities
23	Arkansas State University	Beebe & Jonesboro, Arkansas	#299 to #391 in National Universities
24	Bridgewater College	Bridgewater, Virginia	#168 to #222 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
25	Emory & Henry College	Emory, Virginia	#158 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
26	Ohio State University Newark	Newark, Ohio	N/A
27	De Anza College	Cupertino, California	N/A
28	Cabrillo College	Aptos, California	N/A
29	Utah State University	Logan, Utah	#249 in National Universities
30	George Washington University	Washington, DC	#63 in National Universities

What Can You Do to Stay Safe on Campus

Besides choosing a safe college, there are things students may do in order to maintain safety on campus. It all starts during the college application process. There are also various safety steps that may be taken when already in college, such as going out with friends and being careful online.

No matter if you are attending a women’s college or one that’s co-educational, there is always a possibility that you can fall victim to a predator, which can happen when you least expect it.

However, it doesn’t mean that you should give up your dream of becoming a degree holder and having the best career after college ever.

No matter which college or university you attend, there are certain things that you may do to considerably lower the chances of your parents receiving a phone call from the authorities with bad news.

But, of course, it will help a lot if you go to a safe institution, such as one of those that we mentioned above.

Prior to building a college list, whether one that consists of women’s colleges only or a mix of all-women and mixed-gender schools, it’s a good idea to start taking your safety into account. It’s much better this way than to consider it only when you are already a college student and many, many miles away from the people who can come to the rescue.

Whether you are on campus or hanging out with your friends outside the school’s premises, there are certain things that you may do to keep safe. Some of them include:

• Knowing where the campus safety office is and where the emergency phone stations are.
• Using the buddy system when going out at night.
• Parking in a lighted area or asking campus security for a ride when alone.
• Carrying pepper spray or pepper gel or having a personal alarm.
• Ensuring that your cell phone is fully charged.
• Putting emergency numbers on your phone, especially the campus safety office number.
• Making it a habit to lock doors and windows.
• Refraining from letting anyone you don’t know inside your dorm or apartment.
• Being careful with what you post on social media to avoid being stalked.
• Participating in a college safety program.

Just Before You Apply to a Women’s College

Many women feel safer attending women’s college. But in case going to an institution where your classmates are all females is not really your cup of tea, fret not. That’s because there are many co-educational colleges and universities that are considered some of the safest across the country.

When building your college list, make sure that you check out the crime rate of the school as well as its location before deciding to send an application to it.

Read Next: 10 Unique Benefits of Women’s Colleges