College Heritage
Elizabethtown College Today
At Elizabethtown College, central Pennsylvania’s leading comprehensive college, students learn through experience, guided by attentive faculty in a highly interactive environment. Elizabethtown offers more majors than other similar-sized colleges and a core curriculum that strengthens interpersonal communication, writing, creative thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills. Graduates leave armed with the knowledge and skills necessary for a successful career.
Elizabethtown's 45 majors and more than 60 minors or concentrations allow students to tailor their studies in preparation for an array of graduate programs or careers. Some of the most popular fields of study are education, business administration, communications, biology, occupational therapy, international business, English, psychology, social work, engineering, accounting, mathematic, and political science.
Students experience personal attention from 126 full-time faculty, 90 percent of whom hold the doctorate or other terminal degree in their field. The College’s student-faculty ratio of 13:1 and average class size of 25 create an interactive learning environment that ensures students are not just numbers or faces in the crowd.
Research, internships, field-work, athletics, music and student leadership opportunities provide hands-on learning inside and outside of the classroom. Students also find their niche through more than 80 clubs and organizations, including a student newspaper, radio station, yearbook, literary journal, and television station; religious, musical and theatre groups; national honor societies and departmental clubs; and Student Senate, Students Working to Entertain E-town, and Residence Life Council.
A member of the NCAA Division III and Middle Atlantic Conference, Elizabethtown has a strong tradition of successful athletic teams. Men’s intercollegiate teams are sponsored in soccer, cross country, lacrosse, volleyball, swimming, wrestling, baseball, tennis, track and field, and golf. Women’s teams are sponsored in basketball, soccer, cross country, lacrosse, volleyball, swimming, field hockey, softball, track and field, and tennis. Most students also participate in the intramural program.
The residential nature of Elizabethtown's campus – where 85 percent of students live in on-campus residences – provides a home away from home for a diverse student body. The College enrolls nearly 1,850 young men and women from more than two-thirds of the United States and more than 40 foreign countries. For those interested in stretching their wings, Elizabethtown -- through Brethren Colleges Abroad, located right on campus -- offers study abroad programs in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Founded in 1899 by the Church of the Brethren, Elizabethtown has remained true to its heritage of service, non-violence, and justice, while continuing to move forward. An ongoing strategic planning initiative has enhanced academic and cocurricular programs and strengthened the College’s position as a leader in education – Elizabethtown has been ranked for 12 consecutive years as one of the best regional colleges in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
