Grove City College is an institution of higher learning where values and value are inseparable.
Values
Grove City is a private, conservative, Christian liberal arts college on the cusp of its 150th anniversary. Located in Western Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, the school has 2,400 undergraduates and defines its responsibility as developing the whole person in each of them. The college’s stated mission: “We equip students to pursue their unique callings through a Christ-centered, academically excellent and affordable learning and living experience.” Vice President for Business and Finance Michael R. Buckman expresses it similarly: “Grove City integrates faith and learning in all that it does, empowering our students to develop a sense of faith and purpose as the path to fulfilling lives.”
Value
Tuition, room, board and a technology package for the full 2025 – 26 school year at Grove City is $35,290, roughly half or less than many private liberal arts colleges. About two-thirds of students receive scholarship assistance from the college, and of that total, 45 percent receive need-based aid up to $15,900. While students may receive outside sources of scholarship funds, students cannot access federal loans or grants because Grove City College does not accept any federal funding.
Independence and Affordability
Therein lies another intersection of values and value. Independence is one of Grove City’s core beliefs and the College proved its commitment to that value in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Grove City College v. Bell. Throughout the 1970s, the federal government attempted to force the College to accept the terms required by Title IX of the Equal Rights Act of 1972, which included subjecting the school to federal regulations, including those that had not yet been issued. Protective of is commitment to academic freedom and religious liberty, the College resisted those efforts and filed suit when the government threatened to pull loans and grants that students used to pay for their education. The court’s final ruling in 1984 went against the College and later passage of “the Grove City bill” led to the College leaving the loan and grant programs to maintain its independence from federal control.
No federal support, yet a commitment to affordability that traces to Grove City’s very founding. That—plus the school’s aversion to debt—redefines pressure on the endowment. Michael R. Buckman states: “There's always a tension between affordability and excellence in everything we do, but that’s our value equation. The endowment is the cornerstone of our financial modeling—and we look at every last nickel. The bulk of our spending supports need-based financial aid, so we have to deliver.”
Financial Strength and Development
After a $70 million bequest from the estate of alum David R. Rathburn, the endowment stands at $220 million. Impact 150, a multi-phase campaign that coincides with the college’s 150th anniversary in 2026, has a target of $185 million. The principal goals of the campaign are funding student financial aid, making a series of campus improvements and growing the endowment for a stronger future. The work has started with the transformation of the Hall of Science, built in 1931, into a state-of-the-art facility and connecting it to the adjacent STEM Hall to create a center for interdisciplinary collaboration encompassing science, engineering and technology. The endowment's investment philosophy reflects the principles of the endowment model, is highly diversified globally across all asset classes and strategies and takes a perpetual point of view that embraces the concept of intergenerational equity.
“Grove City integrates faith and learning in all that it does, empowering our students to develop a sense of faith and purpose as the path to fulfilling lives.”
- Michael R. Buckman, Vice President for Business and Finance
Leadership Transition
A major event takes place this summer, as Bradley J. Lingo, class of 2000, becomes Grove City’s 10th president, succeeding Paul J. McNulty ’80 after his 12-year tenure. After Grove City, the incoming President graduated from Harvard Law School, clerked in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, practiced law in a private firm and served as Dean of Regent University School of Law.
Academics
Grove City offers a wide range of academic programs. Students—or “Grovers” as they are known—can choose not only traditional liberal arts majors and minors but also strong mechanical engineering and STEM curricula as well as education, accounting and finance, entrepreneurship, and economics (distinctive because the school focuses on the Austrian school of economics as opposed to the more widely studied Keynesian school).
“There's always a tension between affordability and excellence in everything we do, but that’s our value equation. The endowment is the cornerstone of our financial modeling—and we look at every last nickel. The bulk of our spending supports need-based financial aid, so we have to deliver.”
- Michael R. Buckman, Vice President for Business and Finance
Athletics
Grove City varsity athletes are known as the Wolverines; the school fields 11 teams each in men’s and women’s sports; and it is a member of the D3 Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC). Thus far in the 2024-25 academic year, Grove City leads the PAC in the All-Sports Trophy competition. Football has been strong for several years—18 Wolverines were named to the All-PAC team last fall—and the school has traditional strengths in swimming, lacrosse and baseball.
Media and Broadcasting
If one wanted to keep up with those teams’ exploits, one alternative would be to tune into WBN, or the Wolverine Broadcast Network. Grove City radio is, in fact, history-making: The College radio station made its first broadcast in 1920, making it quite possibly the very first collegiate broadcaster (difficult to confirm with absolute certainty owing to record keeping in radio’s nascent days). One thing for sure, Grove City’s WSAJ was broadcasting months before Pittsburgh’s KDKA, which is widely acknowledged to be the first commercial radio station in the U. S.
Commitment to Developing the Whole Person
There’s another team of note at Grove City, and it represents a discipline very different from athletics: the Debate Team. Over the past six debate seasons, Grove City Debate has secured 12 national championships in varsity, junior varsity and novice tracks—and that is only the opening chapter in the team’s story of accomplishments.
It’s one more case of Grove City College’s hallmarks of excellence and affordability melding with the school’s commitment to developing the whole person. About that, there’s no debate.