Gustavus Adolphus College
Reviews

Our Own Windy City

The weather is normal for where we are in Minnisota but the campus is always windy. A calm day is a light breeze, bad days can have people walking in diagonal lines.

Minnesota Winter With Extra Wind

It's windy on the hill a lot of times. I enjoy the snow, but it can be bitterly cold in the winter. Once or twice a year, classes are cancelled for the amount of snow. It's wonderful how when the weather is warm and sunny, people migrate outside to the campus lawns. And the fall colors in the arb and 7-mile park are spectactular.

I Walk and Bike. Otherwise Stranded.

Everything on campus and in town is easy walking and biking distance. That's usually all I need. The College runs the Gus Bus within Saint Peter on weekend nights, which is convenient. Unless you have a car, the only long-distance transport I know of is an hour bus ride to the airport in the cities for 25 dollars. I occasionally need it for getting home when my parents can't pick me up. Convenient if you book it in advance.

Cars Are Unneccessary

Everything on campus is 10 minutes walk, max, and everything in Saint Peter is within walking distance. Downtown Saint Peter is 15-20 minutes walk. You pretty much only need a car if you want to go home on weekends, which a fair number of people do, or if you want to go to the better variety of shopping and restaurants in Mankato. But there's plenty in Saint Peter

Very Cold

It's very cold and VERY windy in the winter. The winter is so long, it's sometimes hard to remember what it's like when it's not winter

Social Justice Warriors

The campus is super social justice oriented. Though the motto of Gustavus "Make Your Life Count" sounds absolutely terrible, the intended meaning is that we strive to make ourselves into the strongest and most concerned citizens of the world. It's beautiful.

Also, the people I have met here are some of the most through-thought people I have/will ever meet. I am so glad they are my friends and I feel that we will most certainly be life-long friends.

A Complicated Question...

See, Saint Peter, MN is pretty boring. There are cute things in town for when your parents and family come to visit like the Swedish Kontur Imports store and a few other kitchy little shops. There are some decent pizza places and Whiskey River (the local steakhouse) has got a great brunch on the weekends. The Co-Op has just expanded and is a great place to go shopping and grab a bite to eat. River Rock Coffee House is the perfect place to study off campus and get a top-notch cup of coffee. Most of the students do their shopping at Econo Foods (within walking distance from campus) and MGM Liquor and Econo's liquor counter suffice for the weekends.

There aren't many events in town often besides the Rock Bend Folk Festival (art/music etc.), a couple local plays, and the farmer's market. However, Gustavus has an award-winning Campus Activities Board that is always coming up with great ideas on campus and off (even in the Cities). If that's not enough, you can pop over to Mankato (10 minutes away) and grab an adventure. Mankato's where most of us do our shopping and get our fill of commercial society. ;)

We're also an hour away from the Cities, so all of that excitements only a hop, a skip, and a jump away.

Great location, but Saint Peter is really quiet and focused. The people here tend to drive to everything (Hwy 22 and Hwy 169 intersect in Saint Peter). No one is really walking around town so people tend to keep to themselves.

Good Size, Except One...

Gustavus has good-sized rooms, except for one building, Uhler. Uhler doubles are really only enough room for one person. All of the rest of the dorms have good room size and quality.

Safety and Security

Security is good on campus. Keys are required for all dorm buildings, there are regular patrols of Campus Safety officers, and they are very approachable

Double Major Possible

I am a music performance and French double major and Gustavus has made that very easy. I can fit in classes for both majors easily each semester. I know there are also many other students with double majors, a major and minor, or even a major and double minor. The expectations for majors/ minors are well rounded and because Gustavus is a smaller school, teachers are very flexible and willing to make things work.

Little Public Transportation

Gustavus has a bus that drives around campus/town on the weekends and if called. (Costs one dollar per ride during the week). Transportation to the MSP airport is available for $22 dollars one way (round trips available). Bus service to Mankato (nearest large city) is in the process.

St. Peter Is Active, Fun, and Supportive

St. Peter is a small and growing community that always has something going on. Music festivals, art exhibits, winter celebrations, etc. The community members know the value Gustavus brings to the city yet still functions as its own successful entity.

Tolerance

People are pretty accepting on campus no matter what color, religious background, political, or economic background. However, there are some non-tolerant of diversity occurrences on campus, but when these happen the community comes together and recognizes there isn't room for intolerance.

Dorm Options

Dorms on campus are reasonable. For underclassmen, Pittman, Sohre, and Norelius are nice. Pittman and Sohre have sinks in the room with great closet space. Norelius provides a great community atmosphere with a lounge in the center of the rooms. Complex is appropriate housing. Uhler is great for triples and quads, but a little more space is needed. Southwest is amazing with apartments and suites. College View and Arbor view are also very nice, but a little far away from the rest of the campus.

Balanced

In Saint Peter there are the regular fast food places such as DQ and McDonalds, but good restaurants to eat at such as Patricks, El Agave, Whisky River, City Grille, and the Co-op. Prices are reasonable for a college student. In Mankato places such as Applebee's, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Chipotle, Noodles and Company, Tokyo Sushi and Habachi and always good.

The Gustie Spirit

We may not have the best football, basketball, or baseball teams. But there seems to be a full house of Gustavus students at each of the sporting events. Proudly wearing the black and gold while cheering on their peers for a win!

Athletics

Athletics at Gustavus, are pretty important, but the school places emphasis on being a student first and then an athlete. The one thing lacking for athletics is the sports complex, the weight room isn't that up to date or very large. There is a large amount of school spirit that brings pride to sporting events. We even have a fan club that is very much into each event and being supportive.

Greek Life at Gustavus

Greek Life is somewhat different at Gustavus from other schools. Although you can join a fraternity or sorority, you can't join until your sophomore year and there are no designated houses for fraternities and sororities which I think is nice. I like that they are not so heavily involved in campus life, because I don't feel pressure to join them or weird if I'm not a part of them

Abundance of Computers

There are tons and tons of computers available on campus- in the library (which has late hours), in the residence halls, in the student union, and in each academic building. I have never had a problem finding an available computer when I need it.

Professors Are Fantastic

Being a communications major at Gustavus Adolphus is one of my best decisions. The professors are all fantastic and really aim to connect with each student personally. They've all been great at helping students reach into career possibilities. They make discussions accessible to all. I love my major!

Ten Minute Walk Campus

If you drove your car around campus, it would be really weird. It literally takes ten minutes to walk from one end of campus to another end. Transportation on campus is unnecessary. You can easily walk down to the town in 20 minutes, but during some evenings there is a courtesy bus service that runs through St. Peter, which is nice.

Athletics?

GAC is Division 3, so the only athletics people really pay attention to are the ones we are good at: Tennis and Hockey. All others are sub-par.

Residential Campus

Gustavus is primarily a Residential Campus, so getting permission to go off-campus is very tricky, and not always guaranteed. Also, you need to have at least 3-4 friends that share and apartment to stay in the nice student living spaces off-campus, St. Peter isn't a big enough town to support a lot of cheap apartments for only one person. The benefits of living off campus is that it is probably cheaper in the long run, but you will probably want a car sometimes because going up the hill can get tiresome. The disadvantages are that Res Life makes it hard to live off-campus, and you miss a lot of the community atmosphere GAC is known for.

Upperclassman Dorms Are the Best

housing process is really easy, not all dorms are terribly nice, complex is a little gross and loud all the time, as students get older better housing becoming available to them, sophomore year housing is not great

Average College

There are fraternities, but no official houses. But, there are a wide variety of parties at houses and a few really good bars in town. There is free transportation to and from the campus to the bar area of town via the GusBus. It runs from 9pm-2am every weekend. The college owned apartments are also well designed for socialization.