IU Partners With Women’s Colleges
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indiana University Maurer School of Law has announced a scholarship and mentoring partnership with five women's colleges. The agreement involves graduates from schools located in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and California.
February 4, 2015
News Release
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Maurer School of Law has established a scholarship and mentoring program for graduates of five of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges for women: Bryn Mawr College, Mills College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and Wellesley College. These programs follow a scholarship program established last year with Vassar College, one of the first of the Seven Sisters, a group of historically women’s colleges in the northeast.
The program will offer at least two graduates admitted to the Maurer School of Law from each school with guaranteed minimum scholarships amounting to approximately 50 percent of annual tuition, along with access to a formal mentoring program. The scholarship will reduce the cost of law school tuition over three years by $45,000 to $75,000, depending on the student’s residency and other factors.
“The role of women in the legal profession is more important than ever, and our school has made a major commitment to maintaining a diverse enrollment, by recruiting some of the most talented young women in the nation, who go on to be leaders in their fields,” said Austen L. Parrish, dean of the law school and James H. Rudy Professor of Law. “We are privileged to join forces with some of the nation’s most distinguished women’s colleges with the hope that their alumnae will become part of our community.
“We are particularly pleased to have Bryn Mawr, Mills, Mount Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley join our scholarship programs, along with schools like Princeton, Dartmouth and Vassar College. These are some of the very best schools in the country, with sophisticated and impressive pre-law programs. They have not only led the way in women’s education but are among the most respected for their academic excellence and for educating future leaders.”
“Mills College is proud to be part of this scholarship program,” said David M. Donahue, professor of education and interim provost at Mills College. “Indiana’s focus on preparing ethical leaders for the global legal profession is naturally aligned with Mills College’s strategic imperatives to internationalize our curriculum and prepare leaders grounded in inclusion, social justice and sustainability.” Donahue noted that Mills President Alecia A. DeCoudreaux is a graduate of the Maurer School of Law and emerita member of its board of visitors.
“These scholarships will help more talented Mount Holyoke students become changemakers in the field of law,” said Sonya Stephens, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke College. “The focus on global leadership at the Maurer School of Law makes it an excellent choice for our students, and we are delighted to partner with Indiana University in extending this opportunity to them.”
“After graduating from Smith, our students go on to be leaders in a variety of fields, including government, public service, business and law,” said Carrie Baker, associate professor in Smith College’s Program for the Study of Women and Gender. “The Law Scholars Program provides Smith graduates with an excellent opportunity to receive a top-tier legal education with financial support that makes that education accessible.”
Each partner school will nominate at least two students and/or alumnae for admission to the Maurer School of Law every year, provided the applicants meet the law school’s admission criteria. Other indications of future success, such as prior academic performance, letters of recommendation, past professional and other experience, and desire to study at the law school, also will be considered. Applications will be accepted beginning with the law school’s 2015 entering class.
Bryn Mawr College is in Bryn Mawr, Pa., four miles west of Philadelphia. It is one of the Seven Sisters colleges — the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League — and has an enrollment of about 1,300 undergraduate students and 450 graduate students. Located in Oakland, Calif., Mills College has about 1,000 undergraduate students and 600 graduate students and is ranked fifth among overall colleges and universities in the western United States.
Mount Holyoke, which was the first of the Seven Sisters and part of the Pioneer Valley’s Five College Consortium, is in South Hadley, Mass., and has an undergraduate enrollment of about 2,200 students. Smith is also a Seven Sisters college, founded in 1871 and located in Northampton, Mass., with about 2,500 students. Another Seven Sisters College, Wellesley is in Wellesley, Mass., and has about 2,200 students. It is typically ranked among the top five liberal arts schools in the country.
As one of oldest law schools in the country and Indiana’s top-ranked public law school, the IU Maurer School of Law has a history of developing deep relationships with other prestigious institutions in higher education, both in the United States and abroad. Including the women’s college programs, the law school has established 15 partnerships with undergraduate institutions across the country. As part of an initiative to recruit the best and brightest in Indiana, the law school has also partnered with Purdue University College of Engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Ind., and Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. The law school’s other scholarship programs are with Dartmouth College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Grinnell College, Knox College, Princeton University, University of Rochester and Vassar College.
Source: Indiana University