Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Survey says...We're smarter than Straight Boys


According to the journal Economics of Education Review, gay male undergraduates have a higher GPA than straight males at the same university.

Here's some findings
Gay men also spend 40 to 50 percent more time doing volunteer work or participating in student organizations, according to Carpenter's findings. "It's possible that these organizations they belong to could include fraternities," he said. "But I doubt that, because gay men were less likely to say participating in parties was important to them."

Another possible factor in their success rate: Gay male students were about 13 percent more likely than straight male students to report they had a faculty member or administrator they could talk to about a problem.

For women, the picture is far more mixed. "Like gay men, lesbians and bisexual women were much more likely to find politics and the arts important," Carpenter said. "The (above-average levels of) connectedness and activism were the same for lesbians and gay men.

"But the other findings were definitely different. Those differences were driven almost entirely by those women who have had both male and female sex partners. Behavioral lesbians appear to do no worse, no better academically than behavioral heterosexuals.

"But behavioral bisexuals (who are overwhelmingly female) do a lot worse. They spend significantly less time studying. They're much less satisfied with their academic work. They think their academic work is less important than do other women. Bisexual women are not having as good a college experience."

The study provides interesting context for previous findings that homosexuals in the U.S. are far more likely to be college educated than heterosexuals. A 2004 New Jersey study found 52 percent of same-sex couples in that state include at least one partner with a college degree, compared to 42 percent of opposite-sex couples.

Interesting read. Please check out the rest of the article.

Source

6 comments:

Joy said...

That is interesting. Now I'm thinking about students I've taught in terms of this.

Jamie Paisley said...

Regarding that last paragraph:

When looking at a cross-section of the population, it should also be noted that same-sex couples trend considerably younger than opposite-sex couples. So, a younger population is indeed more likely to be college educated. I can't give the research points on that one.

However, there are some interesting points. I do wonder how many of those bisexual women are the "only-in-college" who are just seeking to playing around without the fear of getting preggers while in school.

Anonymous said...

The only reason I graduated with a 3.82 is because I learned early on to accept the occasional C if a subject didn't interest me. The Business Law class fell into that category.

Anonymous said...

Question, in regards to Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds(yes I am off topic, so sue me!) Was he a nerd(extremely intelligent is some field of interest) who happenned to be gay, or was he a nerd simply because he was gay.

Basically, was he a nerd because he was smart or a nerd because he was an outcast due to his sexuality?

Wonder Man said...

Both, he was both.

Prince Todd said...

I graduated with a 3.80 because my mother would literally imprison me in my room if I brought home anything less than a B-...I am not kidding.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.