Both these systems offer a deeper mentorship than what is available in a large, impersonal department, she says. Although mentorship programs may not always make use of top Faculty, Wilson says, students benefit more from such structured relationships than from shorter departmental interactions.

"In a department like chemistry you're given access [through mentorships] to more senior professors and you may meet a few times a month, but it's nothing organized," she says.

A Science Alliance

Wilson cites the six-year-old Science Alliance conference--which Arnotte coordinates--as a classic example of such structured mentorship for women in science concentrations.

Held during the four days preceding orientation week, the Alliance this year offered 37 participants the chance to network with faculty and individuals working in science fields outside of the College.

Alliance participants attend panel discussions and events with male and female Faculty and alumni in an atmosphere Arnotte describes as "oriented to networking, to introducing these women to the people and places of science at Harvard."

March says the program doesn't constrain its participants to technical careers. "It opens a whole world view so that if they work in Chemistry that's not their only option--they can be a patent lawyer or a science writer," she says.

This year for the first time, the Alliance included a panel discussion of alternative science careers. Panel participants included Channel 7 meteorologist Mishelle Michaels and Melissa O'Meara, a forensic chemist from the Massachusetts Crime Lab.

"A lot of the women doctors and scientists kind of talked about how they balanced family--their role as mother and wife--and their careers," says participant Renu N. Gupta '01.

"It was very helpful to me--especially the doctors," Gupta adds. "It kind of opened my eyes a little because my mom's a doctor. Women make so many sacrifices and you don't realize it until hear other women talk about it."

Gupta says the Alliance also gave her access to many Faculty she would feel comfortable contacting again.

"I definitely got the connections," she says.

The networking Gupta alluded to could be key for women at the College. Finding a mentor on your own in science fields can be difficult, students say.

"No one is personally invested in you," says the Radcliffe Mentor Program's Rollins, of her experience with departmental advising. Although concentrators are often assigned advisers, Rollins says mentorship allowed her to explore clinical aspects of psychology she sees as absent from departmental advising.

Because there are few tenured women scientists at Harvard, the pool of possible mentors is small. Some suggest expanding the mentor pool to include both male and female mentors as a simple solution to this problem.