Well, before you read further into this review let me tell you what I was looking for in a college: I wanted to be challenged intellectually, take subjects which were completely new and interesting to me, meet unique people from across the nation and even the globe, and experience a big city with plenty of amazing things to do.My first choice was by far NYU, followed by schools like BU, GWU, BC,etc and Columbia as my reach.
Anyways, I didnt get into NYU and Fordham offered me the most merit aid compared to all the other schools I got into. So I figured I'd be in NYC,especially after Fordham sent me like 20 glossy brochures titled "Fordham is my school, New York is my Campus" showcasing pictures of NYC.
Here's how Fordham delivered:
Well, academically I was a bit dissapointed. Due to the strict core curriculum, freshman year I was extremely limited with the courses I could take. It felt like a repeat of high school, and especially with the classes they were taking me take. Both semesters I was basic retaking AP courses from HS, which was obviously my fault for not taking the exams senior, but regardless of the fact, retaking calculus was not fun. It was even more frustrating to know my HS classmates were actually taking legitimately interesting classes at their (similiarly ranked) colleges. Overall, coursework wasnt hard at all, and thankfully didn't require any busy work.
ok so now onto the life at Fordham.
"Fordham is my school, NY is my campus"........mm yea, not so much. Living at RH you spend most of your time on the campus. The area surrounding Fordham isn't at all dangerous , the Bronx during the day is extremely safe. It's just that there's not much offered to the typical college student there. There's the Bronx Zoo and the Botanical Gardens bordering campus, but besides that there's not much interesting going on. Thankfully Manhattan is a subway ride away, but even that is a 45 minute commute. The Ram Van (universitys shuttle service) is also around the same time. I would spend most of my weekends hanging out downtown in the village, seeing shows,etc but after a while the commute really began sucking. And the last thing you want to do after getting drunk at a party on the lower east side is to endure a 45 minute train ride at 3 am. What also surprised is how little the students at Fordham actually take advantage of NYC. Some will even go weeks/months without leaving the immediate area of campus.
Which leads me to actual nightlife at fordham. well, it gets old pretty quick. As there are 4 bars in the area that students go to on a rotational basis. i guess the one positive is that they dont ID at ALL, but once again, it gets old fast.
Another huge negative is that lack of diversity at Rose Hill.70% of the student population is from the tri state area and students tend to be white,suburban,upper middle class, "WASP"-y. Fordham boasts this 25% ethnic minority shit, but those are mostly commuter students from the city, who don't spend time on campus aside from their classes.Also it's important to note how many of these kids came from private catholic schools, most of which are in the tri state area.
A bit dissapointing when you go to another NYC's schools parties and you're meeting kids from all across the globe.
Basically I was extremely dissapointed with Fordham. The core classes didn't exactly spark my interest and weren't exactly challenging. Although the school's technically situated in NYC you're a still a ways off from the typical city college experience. There's minimal ethnic and geographical diversity on campus, especially compared to a school like BU or NYU.
oh yea and the food absolutely BLOWS.
Thankfully I've now transfered to a school which better suited my needs.
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