Mills College

Summary

Mills College is a private institution that was founded in 1852. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 985, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 135 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Mills College's ranking in the 2015 edition of Best Colleges is Regional Universities (West), 6. Its tuition and fees are $42,918 (2014-15).

Mills College is a small women’s school in Oakland, Calif., on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay. In 1852, workers who traveled west needed a school to educate their daughters, so they founded Mills, which became the first women’s college west of the Rocky Mountains. Today, the school offers more than 50 liberal arts majors to its roughly 1,500 undergraduate students. Both women and men may enroll in any of Mills’ nearly 15 graduate majors, which include the highly ranked Fine Arts program.

Outside the classroom, students can attend events such as the annual Earth Day Fair, visit the Mills Art Museum, or join any of the more than 50 student organizations. Mills also offers recreational opportunities through fitness classes, intramural sports, and the Cyclones varsity athletic teams. The Cyclones compete in the NCAA Division III California Pacific Conference, with cross country, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball teams. Most of Mills’s notable alumni are musicians, including guitarist and producer Noah Georgeson, who has worked with acts such as Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart.

General Information

Applying

When applying to Mills College, it's important to note the application deadline is March 1, and the early action deadline is November 15. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due March 1. The application fee at Mills College is $50. It is more selective, with an acceptance rate of 68 percent and an early acceptance rate of 55.8 percent.

For more information about the tests, essays, interviews and admissions process, visit the Applying to College knowledge center.

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Academic Life

The student-faculty ratio at Mills College is 10:1, and the school has 74.7 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Mills College include: Social Sciences; English Language and Literature/Letters; Visual and Performing Arts; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; and Psychology. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 79.3 percent.

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Student Life

Mills College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 985, with a gender distribution of 0 percent male students and 100 percent female students. At this school, 58 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 42 percent of students live off campus. Mills College is part of the NCAA III athletic conference.

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Campus Services

Mills College offers a number of student services including nonremedial tutoring, women's center, placement service, health service, and health insurance. Mills College also offers campus safety and security services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, and controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc). Of the students at Mills College, 72 percent have cars on campus. Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Mills College.

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Cost and Financial Aid

At Mills College, 84.7 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $20,275.

Paying for college doesn't have to be difficult or devastating. Go to the Paying for College knowledge center to get advice on raising cash and reducing costs, or use the U.S. News 529 Finder to choose the best tax-advantaged college investment account for you.

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