COLLEGES WARM `CHILLY CLIMATE' FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: BROOKE A. MASTERS Washington Post

Worried that women continue to enter math and science careers at a much lower rate than men, colleges and universities across the country are starting and expanding programs to make these fields more hospitable and attractive to female students.

Special scholarships, mentoring programs and study groups abound, as schools across the country act on the premise that women will feel less like outsiders if they come into contact with other female scientists and engineers.

Some schools are clustering women in the same course section, even though that means that the other sections will be virtually all-male. Pennsylvania State University has set aside a freshman dormitory floor for female science majors, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook has tried assigning women to special study groups led by older female students.

Concern about the issue stems from the numbers. Although more women are entering undergraduate math and science programs than in previous years compared with men, they are still more likely to switch majors and less likely to go on to math and science graduate programs.

``It's not that we need more …