We examine the choices of undergraduate students at a French university who are competing for seats at foreign universities to fulfill a mandatory exchange program requirement. We find that average- and high-ability female students request universities that are worse-ranked than their male peers. A survey eliciting students’ preferences suggests that male students prioritize the academic characteristics of exchange universities, whereas similar female students consider both the academic and non-academic characteristics of exchange destinations. We explore the consequences of these differing preferences using a simulation that assigns students to exchange seats solely on university ranking and students’ academic performance.

中文翻译：

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高等教育中的性别与选择

我们研究了法国大学本科生的选择，这些学生正在竞争外国大学的席位，以满足强制性交换计划的要求。我们发现，中等和高能力的女学生要求的大学排名比男学生差。一项针对学生偏好的调查显示，男学生优先考虑交换大学的学术特征，而类似的女学生则同时考虑交换目的地的学术和非学术特征。我们通过模拟来探索这些不同偏好的后果，该模拟仅根据大学排名和学生的学业成绩分配学生交换座位。