Even though, overall, BSM’s student body is 54% boys and 46% girls; the freshman class does not follow in suit, with 61% boys and 39% girls. But even before being told these numbers, faculty, staff, and students all noticed the high amount of testosterone flowing through freshmen class.

The admissions office doesn’t distinguish between prospective students based on gender; they want to find students who want to be here. BSM’s community is obviously very strong, and as a result, the admissions office wants to chose students who will make good Red Knights. “From an admissions standpoint, they don’t distinguish by gender, they want to only find the best students. It usually evens out [because of the different numbers of boys and girls in each class],” Associate Director of Admissions, Ms. Betsy Van Cleve said.

On the first day of school, it is a BSM tradition that the freshmen walk into the Great Hall, greeted by the cheers of Link Crew leaders and teachers. This year, as the freshmen first entered, teachers turned to each other wondering where the girls were. “I noticed it right away and said, ‘Do we work at Saint Thomas Academy?’” Ms. Alisa May said.

Just because this imbalance is rare, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is bad. “It definitely has an impact on the dynamic, but I wouldn’t say that is a negative thing,” Yancy said.

No one really knows exactly why this class ended up so boy-heavy, but of the freshmen that transferred from Our Lady of Grace, 75% were boys––about two thirds of each OLG class comes to BSM.

This disparity is just a numbers problem. Most teachers agree that this gap isn’t a bad thing in the classroom; however, when choosing students to work together it might be a different story. “It’s hard to get groups with even one female,” May said.  

For May, the only issue may be with group creation, but socially the lack of girls may sometimes bring up more drama than that. “Girls do tend to clique together because of the lack of other girls,” freshman George Wolfe said.

In the future, the gender gap will not affect the classes after 2021. “I don’t think we’re going to put 61% girls in the next class just because of this last class. We’re just looking for the best fit students,” Van Cleve said.

The class of 2021 may seem rare, but Assistant Dean Mr. Seborn Yancy claims that the graduating class of 2012 was 75% boys and 25% girls. “I think it’s ideal to have more of a balance,” Mr. Seborn Yancy said.