City: Gettysburg, PA

Category: Education

Telephone: (717) 337-6000

Address: 300 North Washington Street

Description: Samuel Simon Schmucker, a prominent American Lutheran who had founded the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1826, also founded Gettysburg College in 1832; today it covers 200 acres in the north end of town. Its beautiful campus is filled with stately buildings that fit perfectly with the town’s Civil War history, even though the college predates the Civil War by about 30 years. It is situated less than a mile from the battlefield, and Pennsylvania Hall, the college’s first building, served as a hospital for the wounded during the battle. More than 700 Union and Confederate soldiers were treated at Pennsylvania Hall, and in November 1863 Gettysburg College students were among the crowd that attended President Lincoln’s short speech that would forever after be known as the Gettysburg Address. Another president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, spent a good deal of time at the college. He retired to Gettysburg after his presidency and wrote his memoirs in what is today the college’s admissions office, now known as Eisenhower House. Gettysburg College is still a place where presidents like to visit; in 2000 President George W. Bush delivered a speech to the Republican National Convention from Eisenhower House. Today nearly 2,600 students attend this four-year liberal arts and science college, and the student population is pretty evenly split between men and women. About 90 percent of students live on campus, in more than 43 residence halls. The students come from 40 states and 35 countries, with the majority of students hailing from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and New York. About 75 percent of the student body receives some type of financial assistance, and need-based and merit-based aid is available. Students may choose from 41 majors, pursue interdisciplinary and self-designed majors, or complete one of several cooperative and dual-degree programs. Majors include those in the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the humanities, and study-abroad programs are also available. Faculty is composed of more than 190 full-time members, 95 percent of whom have a doctorate or the highest earned degree in their fields. Individualized teaching reigns at this small private school, with the student-to-faculty ratio at 11:1 and the average class size at 18 students. Gettysburg College is home to one of only 19 Phi Beta Kappa chapters in Pennsylvania, as well as honorary or professional societies in 16 academic areas. About a quarter of the students participates in 24 intercollegiate sports programs, and there are varied intramural and club activities available. There are also fraternities and sororities to join. The college is an integral part of the town, and free community events are often held here, such as art exhibitions and artist receptions, musical performances, lectures, film showings, and planetarium shows. In addition, more than 1,400 students participate annually in community-service programs at the national, international, and regional level. Local and regional community-partnership projects include Big Brothers Big Sisters, after-school tutoring and mentoring of grade school students, volunteering at the community soup kitchen, working with the homeless, and working with children in inner-city Baltimore schools. Programs that bond the students as a community are also available. First-year students can select a seminar that appeals to their interests, and students who choose the same seminar are housed together in theme residence halls, where they share living space and classroom experiences with others who have similar interests. There’s the Culture House, the Civil War House, the Green House, the Sports History House, the Writing House, and many more theme houses. The Gettysburg Recreational Adventure Board (GRAB) is a popular program in which students enjoy weekend climbing, caving, kayaking, or backpacking excursions. The academic achievements that can be attained here as well as the emphasis placed on developing each person as an individual have earned Gettysburg a reputation as a fine institution of higher learning. It is consistently ranked among the top 50 liberal arts colleges in U.S. News & World Report, ranking 49th in the 2008 report.