Gettysburg College Top Questions

There is always something to do, it's just a matter of finding it. If you like the outdoors, there are trips with GRAB to go rock climbing, kayaking, etc. If you like the arts, there's a gallery and a theatre where you can act, build, paint, sew, or just hang out and observe. If you like music, there are "coffeehouse" performances in the Junction on weekends and musicians who play in the Attic for happy hour. Free movies are also held in the Junction once in a while, sometimes playing double features on the weekend. If you want to go drink and dance, there are frat parties and bars in town. If you want to try something a little different, the theme houses on campus host a lot of different kinds of events. There's also Thursday Common Hours over lunch (no students have class at this time) where guest speakers come in and talk about relevent social issues-- AND you get free food.

Fraternities and sororities are quite popular with i think about half of the eligible (not freshman) student body being involved. Your freshman dorm is a great place to meet people and usually everyone has their door open at some point during the day. When the weather gets warm people usually congregate outside to lay in the sun or play some frisbee. The best friends I have are those who lived on my freshman hall, in fact by the time I graduate I will have lived with my freshman roommate for all 4 years! People tend to go out on the weekend to fraternities and some go out on the weekdays as well. Older kids go to the bars on Thursdays and one a month they have Midnight Madness late at night with free food in the dining hall (affectionately named Servo). If you want to get away for a weekend Baltimore and DC are close.

Okay- so Greek life is a HUGE part of the social life. If you like to drink and party- its just kind of inevitable that greek life will play a part in that. BUT I am here to be an advocate for clubs and such as well. There is a lot to be involved in on campus. Like I said, the people who are the least happy at Gburg are the people who don't get involved with the campus. Do you have to be a part of greek life to have fun? No. Do you have to be a part of greek life to party? no. Do you have to be a part of greek life to enjoy your four years at gettysburg... no. But If you are interested in Greek life- it is great at gburg. You can be as involved as you want to be- its not completely life consuming or even socially consuming (that is to say you're not necessarily categorized by what greek oranization you join). I have really enjoyed my experience.

The most defining characteristic of Gettysburg College is the partying. It's not uncommon, in fact, it's pretty standard that gburg students party 4, 5, 6, sometimes 7 nights a week. In the spring time when it's warm, students usually are day-drinking, usually whatever time they get out of class and if they have no work. Upper-classmen go to bars usually Tuesdays and Thursdays, and occasionally Wednesdays. Weekends are times for frat parties, other non-affiliated house parties are also popular. Pregaming begins around 9pm and the nights usually don't end til around 3am, but it's definitely not uncommon for people to party until 5, 6, or 7am (on any given day). Natty Light, Banker's Club, and Andre are names a part of everyday speech. If one decides to drink on a "random" day, they refer to it as: Monday Funday, Boozeday Tuesday, Wasted Wednesday, Thirsty Thursday, Sunday Funday (Fridays and Saturdays are clearly set aside for drinking and don't need a name). If per chance you are not drinking on a Friday or Saturday (often because of a game the next day - 48 hour rule), students spend their nights watching movies at home, going to the movies in town, or hanging out with their friends just not drinking. The most popular sports teams are 1. lacrosse (men's first, then girls), 2. football 3. guys basketball. More often than not, fans pregame sporting events. Students pregame pretty much everything. Students go to the library and class drunk on a regular basis. On Springfest students bring drinks in Nalgenes to class. It's really a wonder how more of us didn't end up in the hospital on multiple occasions. Basically, Gettysburg is like a bubble where it feels like you can do anything without anyone on the outside world knowing, nor understanding. My fellow classmates have often said "this place isn't real." Gburg's also been known as "Disneyland" or "GVegas."

In my freshman year, everyone left their doors open. However my sophomore year, no one did. My closest friends at Gettysburg are in my major. There is a large communal bond with people who are in your major, no matter your graduation year. Parties can happen any night (if someone brings alcohol), however the large party nights I've noticed people go to (I'm not a party goer myself) is Wednesday through Saturday nights, and yes they do return very loud, noisy, with paper thin walls to blanket their sounds. How important Fraterinites/sororities are, depends on where you live. If you live on campus, then fraternities/sororities play a larger part in ones social life. If you live off campus, then it is usually the people in the house you live in, who are your social life. There aren't a lot of places a person can go to have fun in Gettysburg beyond fraternities/sororities. There is the Blue Parrot and the Ragged Edge, however they are more sit down calm environments. The largest complaint is that there isn't much to do in Gettysburg, and that is very true. My suggestion to keep you involved if you don't want to go out drinking every night, would be to involve yourself in as many extracurricular activities as you can handle.

The most popular social groups could be classified as the sports teams and greek life. While the two may interchange, the social life centers around these two groups. Most parties are either mixers between fraternities and sororities or between girls sport's teams and boy's sports teams. While the popular sororities are only Gamma Phi Beta, Chi Omega, and Delta Gamma, the popular fraternities are SAE, TKE, ATO, Phi Sig, Phi Delt, and ATO. The sports teams that have the most social gatherings are probably the football team, the basketball teams (boys and girls), lacrosse teams (boys and girls), and the baseball team. The athletic events are usually very popular and a lot of the student body goes out to support them. When students turn 21 their social scene changes a little bit by incorporating the bar scene. Tuesday nights are pitchers at the PUB and LIT's and Trivia at Mama's. Thursday nights are karaoke at Mama's. People party a lot at Gettysburg College and most don't realize this because of the small population... in all actuality, the fact that there are so few students makes parties that much more fun because you start at one end of campus at a party and can wonder all around hopping from house to house or fraternity to fraternity. Events that do not involve drinking at Gettysburg are basically only movie theatres. Drinking is constantly going on at Gettysburg and the party scene is out of control but so fun.

I've mentioned this a lot already I think, but there are lots of organized groups that give a lot of structure to the social life, events held by the college that give students something to do on weekends, and it's also equally possible to find a group of friends to just chill with on weekends. Clubs benefiting social life aren't just Greek life, but also sports teams (especially the Ultimate Frisbee team), theme housing (a group can apply for a theme house that is based on a similar interest, so you live in a house dedicated to an interest of yours and lead events based on said interest), and from my experience Gettysburg College Choir. The events the college leads for social life are really great too; the comedians are usually very entertaining, there is a hypnotist during freshman orientation every year, well-known bands and speakers do stop by as well as less well-known but very interesting and relevant speakers. Also a lot of over-21s enjoy "host provider" events, where any student over 21 gets a wristband on the way in to the event and can enjoy three free alcoholic drinks (beer or wine). There are of course also non-alcoholic drinks that are also free, sodas and that kind of thing. It is possible to find a party on campus most days a week, but weekends are more likely, and it's also possible to avoid a party on campus if it's not your thing (after three full years at the college, I've still never been to a frat party and don't really care to go, and still find myself readily entertained without that kind of partying). People do also dedicate themselves to work, even if it is pulling an all-nighter to write a 15-page paper due the next day (...though I don't recommend that). The library gets progressively more full toward the end of a semester and finals week it is near impossible to find a computer there (though there are less-well-known computer labs across campus if you need to use a computer somewhere quiet... also, these computer labs make it possible to survive without a computer even though most students have a laptop... I went without a laptop for a semester and had no problem getting work done, but email is really heavily relied on for contact).

Students are friendly and social. The most popular clubs include Ultimate Frisbee, Alpha Phi Omega, GECO (Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization) and Italian Club. Athletic events, particularly lacrosse games, are huge. Football games are huge also: a win dictates whether or not there is an enormous open fraternity party that night. There are tons of guest speakers and the theater department and Conservatory sponsor concerts several times each week. The best Gettysburg traditions are Springfest and the coffee cart at the library. Springfest is two weeks befre finals in the spring. The college hosts an outdoor concert with a popular artist, a barbeque and a carnival. It's a huge weekend for partying, especially for seniors: it's the last hurrah before students hunker down for straight studying. The coffee cart is at the library. Every night at midnight (the library is open 24/7!), the librarian on duty wheels out hot water and coffee. Students take a brief break for cocoa, tea or coffee and socialize before hitting the books. Students work hard and party with dedication. Sororities don't have houses, but fraternities do throw parties. They are not essential to the campus life, but personally, I love frat parties. They are free for anyone who attends and in addition to free beer, it's a great excuse to dance the night away. Frequently you'll suddenly realize the DJ is your lab partner, or the girl dancing next to you is a classmate from your philosophy lecture. Activities on campus that don't involve drinking include concerts, movies in the campus union building, hanging out at The Attic (the on-campus night club with a pool table and TVs) and taking advantage of the fabulous history surrounding the town. There are plenty of coffeeshops and bookstores. Baltimore and DC are also very close.

Greek Life rules the school for the most part. The six sororities and eleven fraternities comprise nearly half of the eligible student body. Weekends consist of frat parties or mixers (open to some, not all) and week nights are split between frats and town bars. There are certainly some people who are in serious relationships, there is also a huge amount of "hooking up" that happens. People at Gettysburg work hard and play hard, which makes for a fun experience. The College also sets up events for students over the year, with the best being "Springfest" -- which is an all-campus, all-weekend blowout party at the end of the year. Overall, Gettysburg is a very fun place to party for four years. For sports, the Lacrosse teams (Men's and Women's) are the most popular, but the soccer teams and swim teams also draw big crowds. Generally there is a high amount of school spirit for the Gettysburg College Bullets.

The most popular organization on campus is probably the intramural sports, Everyone loves sparts at Gburg. People are pretty active and like to work out and have a fun time. The dorms are very open and friendly and you'll usually know most people in your building but especailly on your floor. People almost always keep their doos open for study breaks of chatting and snacking with friends! I met my closest friends in my dorm and in DCF (DiscipleMakers). Each year there are 3 big traditions: (1) Crabfest: everyone eats crabs in the ballroom one night. (2) snowball: our semi formal in febuary (3) springfest: a big week of concerts and parties. The party scene is pretty big. There are parties at just about every frat on Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday nights... sometimes Thursdays. Lots of drinking. If I were awake on a Tuesday at 2 am, I'd probably be at LD's with my room mate and girls across the hall drinking cocoa, stardgazing on the quad, or cramming in the library. Frats and sororities are pretty big here... but its easy to get by w/ out them. Things to do on Sat that don't involve drinking: bowling, mini golf, movies, going to DC/ Phillie, frat parties (you'll be one of the only sober ones), hanging out with friends, nighttime adventures through the battlefields, ...keep your eyes open. There are pleny of fun things to do if you are creative :-)