The Male-Female Gap in Post-Baccalaureate School Quality

Women are less likely than men to earn degrees from high-quality post-baccalaureate programs, and this tendency has been growing over time. I show that, aside from the biomedical sciences, this can not be explained by changes in the type of program where women tend to earn degrees. Instead, sorting by quality within field is the main contributor to the growing gap. Most of this sorting is due to the initial choice in which program type to apply to. No gender differences arise in terms of enrollment or attrition choices, and admissions committees in high-quality post-baccalaureate programs appear to favor women.