According to the Harvard Assessment Seminars First Report, released in 1990 by Professor of Education Richard Light, male students look for mentors who "know the facts," while female students want a mentor who "will get to know [them] personally," someone who shares common interests in and outside of their field of specialty.

The report stated that both male and female students equally value a mentor's ability to refer them to other sources of information, but noted the impact of such mentoring varies along gender lines.

The report stated that relative to men, women's satisfaction with their undergraduate experience is more closely tied to informal encounters and meetings with advisers.

Ethnic Options

For some students, ethnicity is the common bond that allows them to "see themselves" in their mentor, educators say.

McGrath says that although the application form for the Radcliffe Mentor Program allow students to indicate their ethnicity, it is not considered a matching characteristic unless a student specifically requests to be paired with a woman from a similar ethnic background.

"We did have several students last year who requested to have African-American mentors, and we worked that out," she says.

"If a student feels a certain level of comfort begins with some bond between the mentor and herself, we try to achieve that," March says. "That usually takes the form of some kind of commonality, sometimes ethnicity, but I wouldn't prioritize."

Rollins says that although ethnicity is an important factor in choosing a mentor, it must be viewed in the context of other mentorship needs.

"I'm sure there are a lot of black Ph.D. out there that I can't relate to," Rollins says, noting that her mentor is white and their relationship has "flourished."

Rollins notes, however, that more women would have a chance to work with mentors of similar ethnicity if the mentor pool were extended to include more minority mentors.

"The program has had trouble in the past attracting minority mentors, although we've been actively recruiting them recently," she says.

Wilson says increasing the number of women Faculty at the College would extend such mentorship capabilities for all students.

"The critical thing is for us to have Faculty with enough women and minorities in it for students to have inspiration," she says. "Students need to be able to see themselves in those [leadership] roles. That's not the only way to be inspired, but life is tough enough [for women of color] that it's good to have the opportunity."