Females comprise 60 percent of the College of Letters and Science Honors Program at the University of Wisconsin, reflecting a nationwide trend in which males comprise a noticeably smaller percentage in university honors programs.

“I think that maybe young women of eighteen versus young men are maybe a little more organized and a little more on the ball,” said Jen Schaffer, advising dean for the College of Letters and Science Honors Program. She added that she is unsure of the reasons for the unbalanced gender tendency in the program.

According to UW junior Eileen Lalor, a student in the program, going beyond the normal class requirements is the key focus of the UW Honors Program. She said it requires “extra work, going into more depth and extra inquiry.”

“It’s a decent amount of more work,” Lalor said, though she did not want to speculate that this reason is why more men do not partake in the honors program. “Maybe they [men] don’t know about the program.”

Little research has been conducted on the gender disparity in the program.

“It is a tricky thing to get at. It might in part have to do with the fact that men are working more or drinking more. Males may [have] added pressure on careers, which means they have less time for a generic honors program,” UW Professor of Educational Administration Clifford Conrad said.

Conrad also said women are beginning to dominate and outperform men scholastically. With that in mind, the differentiation in honors programs enrollment is not so surprising, Conrad said.

Cyrena Pondrom, director of the Letters and Science Honors Program, said she “doesn’t know why” the trend exists.

“In college in general, sociologists have speculated that men place more priority on certain kinds of activities not involving college. There is a greater emphasis on the masculine gender not to study,” Pondrom said.

Pondrom also noted in some university honor programs, females comprise about 75 to 80 percent of the participants.

For some UW students, the thought of taking on additional work seems an impossible task.

“I know of people who have to write about a three to four page paper a week. Honestly, who has time for that when you’re juggling three, four or five classes and their requirements, extracurricular [activities], friends and having fun on the weekends,” UW junior Jeremy Schellin said.

The UW Honors Program offers talented undergraduates the challenge and opportunity to work closely with faculty members, especially professors. In addition to traditional coursework, the Honors Program website states, “most Honors students pursue research projects of their own, and many find this experience so exciting that they go on to earn advanced degrees in the nation’s best graduate and professional schools.”

The honors program at UW consists of approximately 1,300 students. Fifty-five percent of incoming students were invited to apply last year, Schaffer said.