Thirty years before gunshots would ring across campus, the school now known as Gettysburg College was founded in Pennsylvania. The school is adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park, site of a pivotal Civil War matchup between the Union and Confederate armies and where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address. Today, the town of Gettysburg is a popular tourist landmark, so students at Gettysburg College have plenty of dining, shopping and entertainment options to check out. On campus, there are about 120 student clubs and organizations, and Gettysburg has nearly 20 fraternities and sororities, which more than 40 percent of students join. Freshmen must live on campus, and will be assigned a room near others in the same First-Year Seminar or writing course. Ninety percent of all students opt to live on campus, and sophomores, juniors and seniors are assigned housing through a lottery system. Living on campus puts students in close proximity to The Attic, the schools night club.Athletes play on the Gettysburg Bullets in the NCAA Division III Centennial Conference. For a different kind of workout, students can go on hiking, kayaking and climbing trips run through Gettysburg Recreational Activity Board. GRAB, as it is known for short, also coordinates student- and faculty-led expedition trips around the world, including sea kayaking in Alaska and hiking the Austrian Alps. GRAB trips are open to Gettysburg students, alumni, parents of students and faculty members. For closer trips from campus, students can get to Baltimore in an hour, Washington in an hour and a half and Philadelphia in two hours.Undergraduate students can get a feel for career life through the schools career immersion trips. Students take three- to five-daytrips to Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York to attend company presentations, meet with prominent alumni and work together on case studies. Students can also complete weeklong externships as early as freshman year. Externship opportunities are found across the country, and the Gettysburg Center for Career Development pays for any transportation costs. Students interested in history dont have far to go for an internship, though, with opportunities at nearby landmarks like the Gettysburg National Military Park and Antietam National Battlefield. Notable alumni of Gettysburg College include Ron Paul, a former politician and frequent presidential candidate; Joe Carbone, a coach for the Los Angeles Lakers; and Carson Kressley, star of the former television hit "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

Founded in 1844, Hillsdale College is a private institution. Hillsdale College offers a Greek system, where 22 percent of the student body is involved in a sorority and 33% is involved in a fraternity.