National College Rankings Places Gettysburg at the Highs and Lows
The Cupola at Penn Hall (Photo Mary Frasier/The Gettysburgian)
By Nicole DeJacimo, Managing-Editor
Recently, the Princeton Review published the 2021 college rankings; Gettysburg made the list of top twenty schools for six categories, in addition to being classified as a green college, one of the best value colleges, and a college that creates futures for its students.
Of the best 386 schools evaluated by the Princeton Review, Gettysburg College ranks as follows:
#7 Lots of Greek Life
#7 Little Race/Class Interactions
#9 Best Campus Food
#12 Students who Study the Most
#14 No One Plays Intramural Sports
#17 LGBTQ-Unfriendly
College spokesperson Jamie Yates responded to the rankings and pointed out the newly hired Director of Gender Equity and LGBTQIA+ Life, Amanda Del Gaudio, a first for Gettysburg College. The Campus Pride Index, an “overall indicator of institutional commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive policy, program, and practice,” gave Gettysburg a 4 out of 5-star rating.
The Campus Pride Index uses administrative policies while the Princeton Review compiles student surveys in addition to quantitative data from institutions.
While it is up to students to interact with their peers, “We continue to make important strides in our collective efforts around diversity and inclusion on our campus,” Yates said, “including the work that’s being done right now to revise the curriculum to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
According to BestCollegeReviews.org, Gettysburg ranks #34 for best Greek life with 41 percent of the eligible undergraduate community involved. While the majority of students are not in a sorority or fraternity, many students remark that the college is more heavily influenced by the Greek community than advertised. As advertised in campus tours and in the college’s Factbook, Gettysburg claims to have a 33 percent Greek involvement rate. That percentage is of all degree-seeking students, many of whom are not eligible for their class year or GPA.
The college consistently landed “best value” rankings from US News & World Reports, Princeton Review, Kiplinger Personal Finance, and Money Management Magazine. Payscale.com found the average early career salary for a Gettysburg graduate to be $58,400 and a mid-career salary at $122,100. This places Gettysburg as the 20th best liberal arts college for salary potential by Payscale.
Gettysburg ranked #11 for students who play the most intramurals in the 2016-17 school year, so the current #14 ranking for “no one plays intramural sports” is a recent downturn that may have related to this past academic year’s pandemic.
As for the safety of Gettysburgians, Niche assigned Gettysburg a C for campus safety but gave the college an overall score of an A. Organizations like @gburgsurvivors are trying to call awareness to sexual violence on campus. A report with results from the Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response Task Force will be published this summer.
“We know our work is far from complete and we remain committed to maintaining this priority moving forward,” Yates said, “it is critical we prioritize our students’ safety. We remain committed to becoming a better-informed campus community by taking steps to educate, prevent, and adjudicate incidents that occur on campus.”
June 17, 2021
While the class of 1977 was quite some time ago, overall I was impressed by the rankings achieved however disappointed by the ranking of Little Race/Class Interactions, and the rating of LGBTQ+ Unfriendly. The hiring of Amanda Del Gaudio, after her distinguished record at Hofstra during the administration of Stuart Rabinowitz gives one hope in the same vein that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” As a Caucasian ally of the LGBTQ+ community, & a former honorary member of the Black Student Union during my time at Gettysburg, fueled by the social justice teachings of former Gettysburg and Yale Chaplain the late Rev. John Vannorsdall and others, I remain confident that Gettysburg College will not only remain an excellent educational value but that it will also be an educational institution that lives up to its full values. E pluribus unum.
June 17, 2021
But wouldn’t ever college experience a pandemic related drop off in intermurals? I think there are definitely more factors at play with it’s decline.
June 27, 2021
So much ambiguity in this article—clarity is begging.
For example, the 369 others schools scored higher with respect to being LGBTQ friendly? Don’t believe it
as GBURG constantly, on-and-on supports that group.
For example, the ranking of Greek life simply is inconsistent with other sources cited. Why? What factors are evaluated?
For example, what means “Little Race/Class Interactions”? The inference is GBURG is not welcoming and not inclusive, great place for bigots, 379:other schools are more inclusive. Nonsense!
Or, are the author’s commentaries opposite of my comprehension?
How about taking another try at this one. And, why are the administrators so apologetic about conditions at the school? It is a bastion of activism, social re-engineering and Wokism, is it not?