<p>The next school we'll be visiting is Gustavus Adolphus College. It's a small LAC in St. Peter, MN known for great academics, great financial aid, and friendly kids that are head over heels in love with the school. Also has a 83% grad rate and 91% retention rate.</p>
<p>Anyone here have any first-hand knowledge of it? Experiences? If so, how does the business major stack up?</p>
<p>We live in MN, and D2 and I have spent quite a bit of summer time on the Gustavus campus at a family sports camp. D1 also did a college visit there, and a lot of kids from my Ds’ high school end up going there to school. My best (adult) friend also went to college there.</p>
<p>I think a lot of the students at Gustavus are very happy there. Solid academics, nice people. It is very Lutheran, which may be offputting to some people. The campus is on a hill, awfully open & exposed in the winter.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the business major (looks like they have an Economics & Management major, and do offer accounting as a major – which is more than most LAC’s have). I personally am a graduate of a major university’s business school. If your kid is truly/deeply interested in business, you might reconsider whether an LAC is the right choice… course offering and major choices within business are a lot broader than at most LACs. My older kid is at an LAC, and D2 will surely be as well, so I don’t have any general bias against LACs. But business does not tend to be among the strongest majors at most of them.</p>
<p>They have a wonderful choir, and a great choir director, as do a lot of the Lutheran schools.</p>
<p>We visited as an add on to other area visits and weren’t crazy about it. People were very nice, and seemed to love it, but not for D. We second post about exposed hill - we were there in February. It seemed fairly provincial compared to other area LACs. Almost every kid in admissions office had letter jacket and seemed to be from surrounding area. We toured Bio building and dorms, along with several other class buildings. D was put off by labs being less nice than her public HS. They do offer fairly large, easy to get merit aid for qualified students. I don’t know about the business program. It was a case of looking better on paper and in the mailings than we experienced in person, though. However, the kids there have lots of spirit and seem to love it. BIG into sports.</p>
<p>It’s sad to hear about the bare hill. Gustavus lost 2000 trees and most of its windows in an outbreak of tornadoes in 1998. It will take years to restore its trees. </p>
<p>[1998</a> Comfrey ? St. Peter tornado outbreak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Comfrey_–_St._Peter_tornado_outbreak]1998”>1998 Comfrey–St. Peter tornado outbreak - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>A year ago, we toured the campus with my daughter. We had lunch with a biology professor who was very personable. Later we sat in on a sample class that he taught. He was excellent.</p>
<p>We live within one hour of St. Peter. In fact, we had a tree fall on our house during the tornado outbreak that devastated St. Peter. My daughter was not impressed with Gustavus. She said she saw three former students from her high school in the first minute, and that was off putting to her. But mostly, she was looking for a less rural, bigger school experience. She just was not the right person for a rural LAC. Now, she’s happy at UW Madison.</p>
<p>Our high school sends large numbers of students to Gustavus, St. Olaf and Luther. I’ve heard good things about all of them.</p>
<p>I’m glad you are getting some good feedback. Gustavus has a very good reputation in Minnesota. Open, friendly kids and, as noted, the students who go there love it. </p>
<p>Its appeal seems mostly regional. A “hidden gem,” perhaps.</p>
<p>In the old days, when everyone in Minnesota was Lutheran 
, Gustavus was for the Swedes and St. Olaf was for the Norwegians.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from Gustavus last year. She’s now in grad school. I echo MidwestMom’s comments above. It is very well regarded regionally, and almost unknown outside the upper midwest (we’re in Cincinnati, but lived in Chicago). Most of the students are from Minnesota or surrounding states. While it is a Lutheran school, my daughter didn’t think that religion was heavily emphasized; there is an emphasis on service.</p>
<p>My daughter thought she got a great education, and enjoyed her time at Gustavus immensely. St. Peter is a small town, but a lot of the students would go to the larger city of Mankato for things like restaurants, clubs, etc. The Twin Cities are about an hour drive.</p>