Academically is seems like the order is Denison, F&M then Gettysburg but overall they seems close. We’re looking more for feedback on campus life - specifically school spirit and social scene - are football games or other sporting events a big deal, are there parties or bigger events, are there popular things to do off campus? We have visited all of them - F&M students seem to frequent their “city”, Gettysburg has Greek life, Denison we aren’t too sure about (they have Greek life but don’t have Greek housing?). Kid is not looking for a drinking scene but also isn’t looking for a dry campus. They do like to be social, really wants some sport-related school spirit and doesn’t have a preference on Greek life.
Three schools most won’t know although everyone knows the Gettysburg address. 
So I wouldn’t say or worry about which is better - they’re all good if your student takes advantage.
Look at the niche student section - they’ll give you comments or words to describe the students, etc.
About Gettysburg, the top 3 are:
work hard play hard
Intelligent
Stressed
About F&M, the top 3 are:
Academic
Dedicated
Stressed
It’s a bit smaller. Of course they use the city because it’s in the city. Story of one - but one person I call on for work went there for Poli Sci and said it was a scam and his kid couldn’t get a job. Was it the school or kid? He was full pay.
Denison’s three words are:
Diverse
Open Minded
Outgoing
In the end, where did the student feel most comfortable - including environmentally.
And for what it’s worth, Party Scene wise, Niche says Gettysburg an A-, F&M and B and Denison a B-.
Good luck
Denison used to have out of control partying, successfully tamped it down about 10 years ago, and have managed to make that stick ever since.
One disgruntled parent vs. about 92% employed or in grad school within six months, with higher average salaries than Penn State’s. I guess at F&M also there has to be a bottom of the class, just make sure it’s not your kid.
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Context for social life at Denison: greek life was residential – and out of control – until maybe 30 years ago. As I understand it, to break up greek life’s control of the social scene and to keep students safer, the college shifted to a non-residential greek life model. Since then, greek houses are used for house meetings and low key socializing, with parties banned from the houses.
With that change, senior apartment housing – affectionately called the “Sunnies” – became the center of the party scene which continued until recently. On any weekend night, there would be multiple parties thrown in a senior apartment building, with students hanging out in the hallways, stairwells etc. Those apartment buildings were aging and the administration determined – for lots of reasons – that model was not sustainable. In 2019-20, the “Moonies” (named by the students), were built as multi-use party space/barns on a part of campus below the Sunnies. New senior apartment housing was also built so that there would be enough apartments for seniors who wanted more independent living.
My kid graduated in ‘20, the year the Moonies opened when students were sent home after spring break, so didn’t see how the new space would be used. Fall ‘20 was prime covid isolation on campus, so that interrupted integration of the Moonies into regular campus life. My kid heard there was some backlash about shutting down the party scene at the Sunnies so that may be the basis for the “lower” ranking on party scene.
More broadly, campus is friendly and open, and anyone who wants to party should have no problem finding parties. There is strong school spirit, but with 2500 students, don’t expect SEC-style tailgating for a Saturday football game. My kid played a varsity sport (and was not in greek life) – his friends, and his teammates’ friends, went to his games, and he went to his friends’ music, theater, fine art shows, games/matches etc. There was plenty to do on campus and he was not bored. Once they were juniors or seniors, they started going to Columbus sometimes for entertainment, nicer restaurants etc. and would get OSU football tickets – ubering home to Granville.
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