While preparing to leave high school, young teens are applying to all the colleges and universities of their dreams. I wonder though if boys have the same thoughts as young girls when they are starting their college decision.

"Is the campus nice?"

"Do they offer enough opportunities for me?"

"What are the dorms like?"

"What are the odds I will be sexually assaulted?"

I can bet that more young girls ask themselves the last question than young boys. So, what can they do? Do we make decisions about our education based on the rape/sexual assault statistics of universities?

When one in five undergraduate female students are raped or sexually assaulted on college campuses, how can any young woman feel safe at college? College students try to report the sexual assaults they experience, but what good does that do when a study done by the BUS/Department of Justice showed forty percent of colleges failed to conduct a single sexual assult investigation? The lack of help colleges and universities have offered to rape/sexual assault victims has had a part in making less than five percent of victims even report their assults, according to a BUS/Department of Justice study.

The justice system has dropped the ball on holding rapists accountable and has a great way of blaming the victim for the horrific things they experience. Many victims have reported that they are hesitant about going to the police after an attack in fear of not being believed or even humiliated. Once a victim does come forward, they are lucky to get a lawyer to even take on their case. Studies found that prosecutors hardly take rape/sexual assault casses because of how difficult they can be to win. They fear a jury wont take the side of the victim, so instead of trying, they dont take on the case in fear of ruining their win to lose ratio.

Now, how does all of this tie back into young women making a choice on their education? Imagine being one of ten girls sitting in a class. Two of you will be raped or sexualy assulted before you graduate. Now, think of how many other classes you will have in a single semester and how many other girls are in each one of those classes. Do you see how the odds are not in your favor? I never thought much of the issue until my great grandfather has made it a point to try to convince me to not even apply to the top university in my state because they have the highest rape/sexual assault cases in the state. Is this what we have to start making our college decisions based on? Fear? Or will our justic system and our college officials hear our voices and take rape and sexual assault cases seriously?