Fordham University Top Questions

There is no one good thing about Fordham. Its location, the beauty of the campus, and the flowing tradition and history of Fordham University makes it a great place to spend four years. It is not a large enough campus where one can get lost in the crowd, but it is also not small enough so as to know every other student. The various clubs, honor societies, and intramural teams consume time outside of the classroom. Easy transportation into Manhattan is also available, where students will spend time going out to dinner, seeing a movie, or exploring the Big Apple. New York City has something for everyone and offers great employment and entertainment opportunities. Many of the students, especially the upperclassmen and women, know the Fordham fight song ("The Ram") by heart and will recite it acapella at sporting events. The most memorable moment I have had to date occurred when I attended the Fordham University Fundraising Dinner, which honors Presidential Scholars. Alumni, young and old, came together at the Waldorf-Astoria and sang the Ram in unison. I was never prouder to be a Fordham Ram than at that moment.

Fordham Lincoln Center is a weird place. You have two options: Live in the dorms or off campus and this severely changes the way you experience the school. When you live in the dorms you can go a little crazy. There are about 10 floors of dorms in one building so you are stuck with everyone. Also the dorms are connected to the classroom building so it can get a little clautraphobic. Some people don't go outside for days or weeks at a time, which creates a kind of stressful environment. If you don't live in the dorms however it can be difficult to get a "college experience". Because you are in Manhattan, there is little reason to stay around school if you don't live there.

The best thing about Fordham is its location. While it is in the Bronx, it is incredibly close to the city; students have easy access to major cultural and learning centers etc. Population wise, Fordham is just right. You see new faces every day, but classes are still a reasonable size. People are often impressed when I tell them I go to Fordham; some replies I get are: "Wow, great school!"; "It must be tough!" etc.

I'll stick to Lincoln Center here. Fordham has a few really great departments, whose faculty and resources of which a motivated student can take advantage because the school is so small. Fordham, as the school makes sure to note to prospective students, has a large core requirement. The idea is to provide the student with a well-rounded liberal arts education, but the details of the requirement are poorly thought-out and the school staffs many of the core-require classes with adjunct professors, to varying success. By the time one graduates, they will have spent a lot of time and money on poorly-taught classes. One of the only advantages Fordham Lincoln Center has over the other major private colleges in Manhattan is that, compared to Columbia or NYU, it feels of the city, rather than just a campus located there. A large percentage of the student body is composed of commuters who grew up in the city. Furthermore, thanks to a dearth of student activities, a Fordham student is forced to spend a lot of time away from school. This will probably change, over the next 30 years Fordham plans to spend a lot of money to build an expanded, fortress-like campus. The two other common complaints are the cafeteria and the campus. The cafeteria really is as bad as students would have you believe, but there are a number of other food options close by. Some students complain that the Lincoln Center campus is too small and doesn't feel like a real college. This is true, but if one chooses Lincoln Center over Rose Hill there's no reason to expect otherwise.