Dominican University of California is a private university in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1890 as Dominican College by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. It is one of the oldest universities in California. Dominican is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). More than 60 academic majors, minors and concentrations, including 11 graduate programs are offered with an average class size of 16. In fall 2020, Dominican had 1374 undergraduate students, including 354 transfer students. Ninety-one percent of students are from California, 6% are from other states and 3% from other nations. In fall 2020, 100% of incoming first-year students received financial aid, 68% identify as ethnically diverse and 23% are the first in their family to attend college. In 2019, Dominican University of California introduced a Test-Optional Policy, allowing first-year students applying for admission to have the option to submit SAT or ACT scores, beginning with the fall 2020 cohort. The university is a member of NCAA Division II and competes in the Pacific West Conference. History Early history The history of Dominican University of California can be traced back to 1850. It was in this year that Joseph Sadoc Alemany was appointed Bishop of Monterey. At the time of this appointment, he was in Italy attending a meeting of the Dominican Order, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic de Guzmán in France in 1216. As Bishop Alemany was returning to his new post in California, he stopped in Paris at the Dominican Monastery of the Cross and expressed his desire to have a few Dominican Sisters join him to teach the children of the Forty-niners. A Belgian novice, Sister Mary of the Cross Goemaere (1809-1891) volunteered to accompany the new bishop and to begin a school in his new diocese. Within three years, nine women (three American, one Mexican, and five Spanish) joined Sister Mary to form the Congregation of the Most Holy Name. In 1854, the Dominicans moved to Benicia. Following the leadership of Mother Mary Goemaere, Mother Louis O'Donnell (1887-1929) moved the motherhouse, a school and novitiate from Benicia to San Rafael in 1889. In 1890 the Congregation of the Most Holy Name, under the auspices of Mother O'Donnell, filed Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of State of California. With the encouragement of faculty of the University of California in Berkeley, a junior college was opened