Gettysburg College Top Questions

Greek life is a huge part of social life on this campus. You don't necessarily have to be a member of a frat or sorority but it certainly doesn't hurt because most of the parties on campus are in the frat houses. The school always has things to do on the weekend that don't involve drinking and some students choose not to go out on the weekends, but most students party on the weekends and sometimes during the week. There's not much to do off-campus, unless it's a party in someone's house that is technically off-campus (meaning about a block away). The school does a nice job of creating communities within the first year dorms (that is how I met some of the good friends I still have now), but don't do the same for upperclassmen buildings.

Sports are very popular to take part in here!

Most friends at Gettysburg are made within the first year. First year halls are not only a breeding ground for illness, but for friendship as well. As soon as you receive your email address from Gettysburg, the first thing you do is make/update your facebook account. This leads to excessive amounts of friending, and many of the people you meet via facebook won't actually be your friends in real life. Of course, due to the small nature of the school, you will know all of your facebook friends, but just not hang out with them. There's honestly not much to do on a weekend that doesn't involve drinking. The school (bless it's heart) tries to prove alternative activites for it's students, but let's be honest, no one goes to Midnight Madness sober. Much of the partying at Gettysburg revolves around Greek Life. It's certainly not necessary to be part of a greek organization to get into parties, but it definately helps. Plus, if you're a member of a greek organization you're allowed to attend mixers, which as any greek life student can tell you, are a never ending source of stories and bad life decisions. However, if you want an activity that doesn't revolve around drinking, you just have to be creative. Take a drive into Baltimore, catch a mainstream movie at one of the theatre in town or an independent film at the newly rennovated Majestic. Take a ghost tour, attend bluegrass night at the bluegrass store, have a scavenger hunt at the 24 hour Walmart, go to the also 24 hour Lincoln Diner (or LD's, for short), bake cookies ... Whatever you can think of. Finding something to do is just a matter of being creative. Spring Fest is probably the highlight of the year at Gettysburg. There's hype about it months before it actually happens, and although so much hype would normally lead to disappointment, Spring Fest always delivers. To be honest, much of the fun of Spring Fest comes from doing Jell-o shots for breakfast an not being sober until 2 days later. But the college gives us bands to listen to, blow-up carnival rides to puke on, and carts and carts of delicous fried food to settle our stomachs. If you're 21, you can even go to the beer cart and get free drinks. Hoorah!

Greek life is a big part of G'burg. I was a member of a sorority and enjoyed every minute of it. However, all of my roommates were independents. So by no means does Greek life dictate a person's social group or their experience at Gettysburg. My roommates had an awesome time on the weekends too! I actually met my closest friends my freshman year and my sophomore year through the sorority recruitment process. The dating scene is good, I met my boyfriend my freshman year at a party, and we are still together. If I was awake at 2am on a Tuesday my freshman-sophomore year, I was probably at the library. But senior year, Tuesday night was LIT night at Mama's! (a local bar)

The most popular organizations on campus are the various Greek organizations. Greek life dominates the social scene, and is basically inescapable when looking for something to do on the weekends. There are 13 fraternities and 5 sororities, and generally there is some party going on where one can enjoy themselves. As sororities cannot have houses, fraternity parties tend to define weekends, but Greek life is certainly not as sports- and wealth-centric as it is portrayed either in film or in rumor. Athletic events tend to draw a lot of attention from about half of the campus, the other half staying astoundingly unaware of anything going on. Despite the influx of alumni for football games, it is remarkably easy to never realize there is a game being played on campus. Shots in the Dark, the improv comedy club, has been a huge factor in my college career. First semester of my freshman year I lived in a theme house with other upperclassmen from the club, and my role as one of the six regulars in our performance troupe has earned me what reputation I have on campus. I am also heavily involved with the Pan Fried Funk, the ultimate frisbee club, both the coed and men's teams. In a large sense, the Funk has been my family at college, taking me in the second week of my freshman year, when practice started, and giving me a standing invitation at their house. This extends to every member of the club, and every friend of the team. You could say that it is clique-ish, but I find it more to have been a foundation, from which I can branch out and experience the rest of college, while having a large group of friends that I can fall back on. The frisbee players that live in the Funk theme house often go to meals at the dining hall together, prompting people who live on their own to join up with them for meals there, which is a welcome cameraderie in the crowded dining hall. Dating at Gettysburg is hard to define. Some people date for a few weeks, some people form semester or year-long relationships, and other people seem to just hook up at parties and never speak again. My freshman year was spent in a long-distance relationship, and this seems to be typical, maybe as many as 25{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of freshman disinterested in the dating scene. On a saturday night that doesn't involve drinking, your main option is to hang out with your friends, and hope they don't decide that beer pong is the only thing left to do. If you plan to not drink or party, it would be a good idea to come to Gettysburg already with ideas for things to do alone, or things to do with other people who don't drink. My freshman year, I mostly watched movies with my friends, or played board games. Now, I party a lot more, but it came with the realization that there are fraternities that are worth being around.

Yes, we leave our doors open. This was one of my favorite things about my hall freshman year. Because you live with the students in your seminar, you all become friends very quickly, and at least in my experiences, everyone is welcome in everyone else's room. I live my life at the library and the theatre, essentially. This is not to say that I don't have a social life. I spend a lot of free time during the day at the library because it's one of the most productive places on campus, and I am, with one B+ as the exception, a straight-A student. Otherwise, I tend to over-commit myself to rehearsals, but that's alright because since coming here I found that I love to perform. There's a huge music program that holds frequent concerts in The Majestic theatre in town. There are movie nights in the College Union Building and dances at The Attic. Snowball is a yearly tradition, a semi-formal winter dance with a live swing band, held in the college ballroom. A lot of more typical weekend nights are spent just hanging out with friends in the dorms, watching a movie or playing games. Off campus, there are lots of restaurants and shops and a movie theatre not too far away. It's very possible to have a social life without partying too hard. Greek life is big, and people drink, yes. But if that's not your thing (it's certianly not mine) you won't be bored, I promise.

Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, is a huge group on campus, and do a ton of volunteer work and other sorts of service. Personally, I'm involved in Amnesty International, which has really been increasing in size and is an active part of the community. There is also Peace Club, which draws in a lot of students, GECO (the environmental concerns group), NAACP, and Black Student Union, all of which get a lot of support. In the dorms, they're really open, people leave their dorms open and hang out all the time. If I'm awake on a Tuesday at 2AM I'll be hanging out with a few people chatting in someone's room, or watching a movie. I met my closest friends on my freshman hall, which was really convenient, so I had a really great dorm experience. Greek life here is huge. About half the student body pledges. There is life outside of it, though, both myself and the majority of my friends avoided that scene. Last weekend I had a party in a friend's room one night, and the next night I went out dancing at a frat and then just hung out. There isn't much to do outside of drinking; there are movies, video games, being weird with your friends, which all works well, but if you get bored easily, then you will. And there's nothing to do off campus.

The social life at Gettysburg revolves around the Greek system. There are approximately 800 Greeks out of 2600 total students. There really aren't many "house parties" or anything. If the fraternity houses aren't open than the party scene is pretty dead. Every spring the biggest party weekend of the semester is Springfest. The school usually brings in sponsors and the fraternities are allowed to set up fences and drink outside all weekend. The Campus Activities Board arranges events on the weekend for those who do not want to drink, such as movie nights, concerts, and Midnight Madness, where the dining hall is open until 2 AM with hot dogs, chicken fingers, etc. Since the majority of students on campus are either on an athletic team or participate in intramural sports, athletic events usually garner pretty good attendance figures, especially football, basketball, and lacrosse games.

I leave my door open if I'm staying on the hall. We haven't had any problems with theft yet this year which makes me feel a lot more comfortable do that. I don't even think about it any more. My two best friends are my roomate and someone I met completely randomly. My other closest friends are my next door neighbors. Greek life is huge on Gettysburg campus - all my guy friends are either brothers in a fraternity or plan to rush in the fall. I sometimes feel pressured to pledge a sorority, but I know I don't want to and won't be looked down upon if I don't. All parties that take place on campus are frat parties.

People are really open here. dorm doors are always left open so wander in and say hello. frats dominate the social scene. socializing is centered around drinking so get your tolerance up! poeple usually go out about 3-4 nights a week depending on what they have the next morning. On any given day you can find a party if your looking. This school likes to have a good time. weekends are slow and nothing really happens. theres always speakers to go see if your interested/motivated i ysaw a hip hop speaker talk about todays music recentltly t was really interesting. nothing goes on off campus.