Gettysburg College Visit Report by TrumpetDad

Visit Activities:

Admissions Interview: No - Son is still a HS sophomore.

Information Session: Yes - No visuals, but a quality Q&A session led by one admissions rep and one student. One or the other could handle any question posed by the 9 student/parent groups there. The student was impressive.

Campus Tour: Yes - Most impressive was that they rolled out 5 student tour leaders to handle the 9 student/parent groups, so no more than 2 per leader. At no time did our tour leader walk backwards or become inaudible.

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Campus:

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I requested a separate conservatory tour, for after the standard tour, and they accommodated.

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Among the best I've seen of the 16 campuses we've visited between the two children.

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I always skip the walk-into-the-room moment. My son said it seemed about 2/3 the size of my daughter's dorm room at Clark U., which is rather spacious.

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Saw some blue lights around.

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The only drawback is the conservatory facilities, which we happen to be most interested in. Most people won't even notice this.

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Off-Campus:

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We blew in and out of there in less than 13 hours, including the hotel stay, but it looks pretty nice. I'm sure the Civil War tourism helps.

Campus Visit Notes for Gettysburg College

Visit Description:

I won't repeat anything that can be found on the school's web site. Frankly, I get a bit annoyed with visit reports that do such things. That's not why we visit ... we visit to see and feel what can't be described on a web site.

The campus is beautiful, and my impression is that it is academically solid. My son is a prospective music major, so we were most interested in the conservatory facilities. And he's just a HS sophomore, so we thought of this as a preliminary visit to get a general feel for the place. We had no intention to meet with any faculty members.

Their music offering is billed as a "conservatory". From all the stats I could gather prior to arrival, I had the impression that "conservatory" might be a bit of an embellishment. Our brief visit seemed to bear this out. What they call a recital hall is a box-shaped room with no stadium seating; instead, movable chairs on a flat floor, in front of an elevated stage. There were students in there rehearsing a song for South Pacific -- and having a lot of fun doing so -- but the rest of the building seemed rather quiet; though it was rather early in the day, around 1pm. It's likely that it gets busier in the late afternoon, once classes complete for the day. I think I'll keep that in mind for our next visit.

They've just hired a new trumpet professor, so this will be a major factor if we return for a sample lesson or audition.

If my son was looking to major in a number of other subjects, I would definitely encourage him to give Gettysburg strong consideration. For music, the jury is still out. It's certainly a place we WANT to like.

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Super 8 on York St. was perfectly adequate for our short stay. Internet is free, and a hot self-serve breakfast included, a la Holiday Inn Express.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Only other meal we ate was in the Gettysburg College cafeteria. Seemed pretty good for college fare.