D is an athlete considering ED at both. Loves the gburg campus and overall vibe, but feels Trinity may be better option for career in finance. Major will be Econ. Think I know most of pros/cons of both schools, but would appreciate the sage advice of CC posters familiar with these schools!
I guess real question - given Trinity’s better academic reputation (at least in most recognized rankings), would that be a significant advantage in looking for a job in finance post graduation?
If there is a significant prestige/reputation advantage for Gettysburg vs. Trinity, I suspect it has regional limits. If you want a finance job in the mid-Atlantic, maybe Gettysburg is a little better known to some firms. If you want a finance job in New England, maybe Trinity is. Penn State or UConn may have stronger recruiting pull than either one (just in terms of drawing company reps to campus for interviews).
Internship opportunities may be more important than “brand”. Hartford still has an insurance industry, right?
So maybe there are more/better internship opportunities there, related to insurance and finance, than you’d find in south central PA. You might want to reach out to each school’s admissions or career counseling offices for information about internships and post-graduate career outcomes.
These are rather similar colleges. His/her own personal efforts are likely to make a much bigger difference than the choice between them.
Gettysburg alumni network is consistently one of the strongest in the country.
We did not look specifically at Trinity and Gettysburg for my D3 athlete, but we do know some recent alums from both. Trinity seems to have more of a “straight line” path to finance careers, though it is hard to know how much of that is because Trinity’s student body has a much higher percentage of students (26%) from the top 1% economically so that those kids are already inclined to consider finance careers and have the connections to get early internships and experience which leads to post-grad jobs whereas Gettysburg draws fewer kids from highly affluent families (11%) and therefore fewer may have been primed to consider finance careers. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html
Consider talking to prospective teammates and the coach/asst coach about career paths and success of recent Gettysburg alums from the team – it may be less about how Gettysburg alum overall do and more about how recent athletes/teammates have done in terms of achieving their goals. If a kid doesn’t love the school and the athletic program, I wouldn’t consider Trinity just because it has higher rates of finance grads.
Trinity tends to be perennially strong in economics: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html. Their graduates also earn a little more than those of Gettysburg on average. As opinion, however, I think your son could comfortably choose Gettysburg based on the overall academic similarities of these two schools.
Gettysburg still feels like a more regional school than Trinity, which may be better known beyond its region. That doesn’t make it better or worse, just an observation.
Trinity has worked hard to make Hartford, often seen as a detractor, a positive through opportunities in the city. Depending on what you want, that could cut sharply either way.
Trinity is probably a stronger brand in NYC and Boston but I would also say that in those markets there are plenty of stronger brands (and not necessarily LACs.) In other words, the edge may not matter much.
The vibe at these schools differs, in part because of who each attracts. If Gettysburg feels right, it probably is. And their athletic facilities are gorgeous!
Interesting - is there any data or study to support this? Or just general reputation
comment above in response to the strength of G’burg’s alumni network, sorry
When my kids were looking same story, Econ major, recruited athlete it seemed that Trinity like many of the NESCAC Schools had more students get internships and jobs in NYC then Gburg. Not saying that is a fact, just saying that the info that we came across showed that to be the case.My oldest did a recruiting trip to Gettysburg and loved it. Decided on a NESCAC school instead and it was a perfect choice for him. As someone else mentioned, email the career services at each school and ask questions. They will answer them.
Good luck
Comment #4 above (and link) really surprised me - trinity appears to have the highest percentage of wealthy kids (top 1% of income) of any college in the country. Depending on your perspective, I guess that could be a positive or negative 
Gettysburg is a small town. Millions of tourists in the summer, but during the school year it’s small. No consortium so what Gettysburg offers is what you get.
For the athletics, look at the competition schedule. How much driving time, how many weekends away from campus. It was not something I considered when my daughter was picking a school but something I really came to appreciate. Her first year was the first year for the team and coach too. The coach scheduled 3 out of town/non-conference games in a row, so that meant 3 road trips in a row - more than 10 hours each way on a bus. And it was the end of the season. They were exhausted and it was very close to finals. Coach never did that again and took advantage of their location, inviting northern teams down to Florida. They played 11 of their 16 scheduled games at home, and 4 of the others in Florida; they traveled one weekend early in the season and played 2 different schools on that one trip. There is something nice about sleeping in one’s own bed. Oh, and my daughter rarely missed a class for a travel game.