Gettysburg College Top Questions

One of my favorite things about Gettysburg is its size. With 2600 students, it's small enough that you are constantly running into people you know on campus, yet there's still plenty that you don't. More importantly, as a student, you're not just a number. Gettysburg is much more personal than that. Profs know your name, notice when you're not in class, and are very available to help students, as opposed to larger research universities. All classes are taught by profs and not TAs. Furthermore, as an all undergrad liberal arts college, undergrads get all the opportunities usually given to graduate students, such as research opportunities and teaching assistantships. I also love the friendly tone of the campus. On my first visit to Gettysburg as a high school senior, I chose Gettysburg because of the friendly and welcoming vibe radiating from the campus and students. It simply gave me "that feeling" that I would fit-in well.

The best thing about Gettysburg is that it's one big community. It's a great size, and because classes are small, students get to know their professors very well and vice versa. People are rather impressed that I graduated Gettysburg, and definitely know about the school. The most frequent complaints are that there isn't always much to do on weekends, aside from parties, and that the campus is rather haunted...so things tend to get misplaced and moved, etc. due to ghostly roommates.

As someone whose high school graduating class was less than 100, Gettysburg is the right size for me. It has enough people that I can choose my friends, but is still small enough for me to know most of the students in my classes. I really hate Gettysburg's administration. They don't care about raising tuition and only care about safeguarding their jobs. In the last five or ten years they haven't raised the chemistry deparment's budget (despite the fact they now have almost double the number of students taking their classes), but tuition is still going up. The money has got to be going somewhere. In addition, much of the administration are incapable of doing their jobs. Many of the people in the registrar's office are incompetent. The deans care much more about how the school is viewed than actually helping students with issues. And don't even get me started on Gettysburg's "Deparment of Public Safety".

Gettysburg, in my opinion, is just the right sized school. As 2,600 students, its small enough that you see people you know everywhere you go, but you still are constantly meeting new people. The classes are rarely larger than 35 people, and most classes are under 20. I even had a class in the beginning of my Sophomore year that only had 7 people in it! Its a great school academically, and they've been trying to get a lot more late night activities for us but frat life is big on campus, and having to fight with that is a losing battle. The town of Gettysburg is cute, but it closes down completely in the winter because it is a tourist town- NOT a college town. The tourist attractions make things kind of interesting, since the battlefield tour buses and the ghost tours go straight through campus and when you leave campus in the warmer months you see reenactors everywhere. The restaurants (mostly) are expensive and nightlife is (very) non-existent. If we want to do something at night or go out to eat, we generally have to drive at least 45 minutes. There are cities that aren't far- D.C. is just over an hour, Baltimore is an hour and half, New York is 4-5 hours, Philly is 3 hours- but they're too far for weeknights. On campus, I spend most of my time in my friend's rooms hanging out, or in the library studying. The library is very nice, and open 24 hours a day- with free hot chocolate at midnight. Thats not something you get from many other schools. One thing thats kind of rough is the GC Core requirements. Its a liberal arts school, so you have to take courses in all areas, but if you're not a science major, getting those science requisites are tough. You have to take either a lab science and a non-lab science, or two lab science. Lab sciences are all tough, and the non-labs are virtually impossible to get into unless you're a first semester first-year.

Gettysburg is a party school if you want it to be. Fraternities have parties every day of the week because there is no social scene outside of the campus. If the civil war is your thing, G-burg is the place to be, if not, you can find your niche in the student body. The administration is horrendous. Transferring requirement classes from other institutions is nearly impossible. The college will give you miscellaneous credit that shows up on your transcript but does not fulfill any major/minor/degree requirements. You may have to take a class twice if you take summer courses to fulfill a required course. Tuition increases by $2,000 a year and costs more than an ivy league education. The school also has a zero transparency policy that will not release information pertaining to where all your tuition money goes. There is also a mandatory student activities fee that is not broken down in financial records for students. I can't help but feel that Gettysburg College is turning into Gettysburg Inc. For after college there is a career development center that is completely useless if you have already made a good resume. They claim to have strong contacts and events, but although they are informationally excellent, there is barely any actual job placement after graduation. For a $200,000 education, you would think there would be more help.

gettysburg is a small school - an intimate campus - the students stay on campus alot and campus activities are very popular - greek life is very popular and prominent on campus - everyone loves the school and there is major school pride -

The fact that our campus is so small is great because you begin to recognize people, and it feels great to have this, especially if you're coming from a smaller school district.

Gettysburg is, despite stereotypes, full of different people. There's no way you could come to Gettysburg and not find a friend; there's someone for everyone here. Greek life is popular, but you can definitely still have fun without being in a frat or sorority. The professors are knowledgeable people (for the most part), and you will spend a lot of time doing school work, but you will learn a lot. Gettysburg students work hard and play hard.

Great academics, beautiful campus, great faculty.

I think the best thing about the school is the academics. I'd change the cafeteria food. We apparently rank very high for school food, but I really don't like the cafeteria's food. I think my school is too small, but many people are happy with the small size. When I tell people that I go to Gettysburg, they often think it's in Virginia or Maryland, and sometimes say something like, "Oh, that's where that battle was, right?" Some people assume then you know a lot about American Civil War history as well. I spend most of my time on campus in my dorm, hanging out in another friend's dorm, or in class. I suppose I spend a lot of time in the College Union Building too, since the mailroom and bookstore and coffee shop are all there. I don't know about school pride, but I don't really have any. I'm pretty indifferent. I suppose the administration is okay, but the Off Campus Studies office is useless and didn't help me at ALL in going abroad. I practically had to figure out everything myself. An unusual thing about Gettysburg is obviously that it's in a historical area, and we have battlefields in our backyard. I dislike that the town is so small. Gettysburg is a very cute, touristy town, but because of that, everything closes very early, so there isn't much to do in the evenings. If you're not one to party every night and drink (which is not my thing), it can get boring sometimes. Then again I suppose that makes you start being creative about things to do.