Gustavus Adolphus College

Gustavus Adolphus College is a highly selective, private, coeducational, residential liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Founded in 1862, it has valued its Lutheran and Swedish heritages throughout its history. The college is guided by five core values: excellence, community, justice, service, and faith.

Gustavus Adolphus College is a church-related, residential liberal arts college firmly rooted in its Swedish and Lutheran heritage.

The College offers students of high aspiration and promise a liberal arts education of recognized excellence provided by faculty who embody the highest standards of teaching and scholarship. The Gustavus curriculum is designed to bring students to mastery of a particular area of study within a general framework that is both interdisciplinary and international in perspective.

The College strives to balance educational tradition with innovation and to foster the development of values as an integral part of intellectual growth. It seeks to promote the open exchange of ideas and the independent pursuit of learning.

The College aspires to be a community of persons from diverse backgrounds who respect and affirm the dignity of all people. It is a community where a mature understanding of the Christian faith and lives of service are nurtured and students are encouraged to work toward a just and peaceful world.

The purpose of a Gustavus education is to help its students attain their full potential as persons, to develop in them a capacity and passion for lifelong learning, and to prepare them for fulfilling lives of leadership and service in society.Gustavus Adolphus College is a private, liberal arts college committed to helping you make your life count—in the classroom, on the field, at our campus in St. Peter, and wherever you go after graduation.

Founded in 1862 by Swedish Lutheran immigrants, the College is well known for its strong science, fine arts, athletics, study abroad, and servant-leadership programs. Gustavus has the distinction of hosting the annual Nobel Conference®, which brings the world's greatest minds to campus each October.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to your college decision. Academic quality, residential life, financial aid... even the food can help you make up your mind! We hope that you visit a lot of colleges—both big and small—before you decide which one to call home for the next four years.

So, why Gustavus? We're known for our strength academically. We think that's the most important feature of a college.After all, you're going to college to get an education. There are a lot of ways to measure academic quality: faculty credentials, curriculum options, class size, graduation data, and more.

But college is also a collection of experiences—both inside and outside the classroom. Whether you're interested in arts or athletics, social justice or music, theatre or intramurals, we hope you look at the entire college to see if Gustavus is the right fit for you. When it comes down to it, your college decision is about just that; finding the right fit.Think carefully about what features you're looking for in a college. Remember, we're here to help you along the way. And when the time comes for you to make your decision, we hope you decide to be a Gustie.

We're known as "Gusties," after our namesake, Gustav II Adolph. Hailing from across the country and around the world, Gusties make their lives count in many ways. There are lots of numbers and statistics to compare when researching colleges; here are some that we think are important.

The Three Crowns Curriculum is a unique way for you to fulfill General Education requirements at Gustavus. College classes generally fall into one of three categories: General Education, your Major, or Electives. Unlike your Major and Electives, courses in General Education are designed to introduce you to different ways of understanding the world. Liberal arts education as a whole aims to encourage you to think for yourself, ask questions, and link different ways of knowing. Our special Three Crowns Curriculum takes this a step further. It consists of a specially prepared sequence of interdisciplinary discussion-oriented courses that students take together in a group. What distinguishes our program from most General Education curriculums is the Three Crowns Curriculum makes the idea of connection paramount. We emphasize connections between disciplines; between ideas and values; between past and present; between learning and life; between students and faculty; and between students themselves.

Science helps us better understand the world, and at Gustavus you can explore science with some of the most state-of-the-art instrumentation and resources available. So you can bet that as an undergraduate student and research participant, you’ll be on a grand adventure.

With science majors ranging from geology to biology and chemistry to environmental studies, research opportunities abound to help you discover your passion in the sciences. With new equipment—an assortment of high-tech instrumentation—and access to some of the best professors around, questions can be answered and your appetite for more science whetted.

Research at Gustavus is a springboard into other opportunities. Following summer, semester, or year-long research experiences, Gustavus students have landed sought-after internships or been accepted into prestigious medical or other graduate school programs across the country.