- published: 28 Jul 2014
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Mills College is an independent liberal arts and sciences college in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally founded in 1852 as a young ladies' seminary in Benicia, California, Mills became the first women's college west of the Rockies. Currently, Mills is an undergraduate women's college in Oakland, California, with graduate programs for women and men. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and 23 graduate degrees and certificates.
In 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked Mills fifth overall among colleges and universities in the Western U.S. and seventh in the Western U.S. in "Great Schools, Great Prices," which evaluated the quality of institutions' academics against the cost of attendance.The Princeton Review ranks Mills as one of the Best 376 Colleges and one of the top "green" colleges in the U.S.
Mills College was initially founded as the Young Ladies Seminary at Benicia in 1852. It was under the leadership of Mary Atkins, a graduate of Oberlin College. In 1865, Susan Tolman Mills, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), and her husband Cyrus Mills bought the Young Ladies Seminary renaming it Mills Seminary. In 1871, the school was moved to Oakland, California and the school was incorporated in 1877. The school became Mills College in 1885. In 1890, after serving for decades as principal (under two presidents as well), Susan Mills became the president of the college and held the position for 19 years. Beginning in 1906 the seminary classes were progressively eliminated. In 1921, Mills granted its first master's degrees.