<p>Fordham looks great on paper and taking s to visit in a couple of weeks. Can anyone comment on how “tight” the college community is? Is it a place where lifelong friendships are made or do students go to class and get out of “town”?</p>
<p>I’d say Fordham’s a very tight-knit community; you can very easily make lasting friendships there. There’s a lot of students from the tri-state area that go home on weekends, and those who aren’t often go to the citybut the relative cohesiveness of the student body more than makes up for the relative lack of campus life. </p>
<p>It’s New York City; nobody stays on the Rose Hill campus especially for its amenities.</p>
<p>Fordham students are overall very friendly, noncompetitive, etc. You should definitely visit.</p>
<p>Fordham kids are fairly tight and go into the city together and look out for one another. Increasingly kids come from distant states and they all seem to meld together just fine. I think Fordham admissions does a pretty good job of admitting “good kids”. Of course, some kids misbehave…as they do at all colleges and its disappointing and disconcerting to parents and other students. But the stories are no worse than they are at other schools…some of them highly prestigious…that I have heard. </p>
<p>Fordham is not an overly clique-centric school…though people naturally congregate with kids of similar views or similar interests. There is a healthy competitiveness between the dorms as well…sometimes resolved on the sports field in club sports. LOL.</p>
<p>Not all kids from tri-state areas go home on weekends…at least not often. Some kids are more home bodies than others…</p>
<p>Fordham’s alumnae association is very zealous…and is an outstanding resource for jobs. In a city renowned for being competitive for jobs, Fordham grads look out for one another. </p>
<p>Fordham says, “New York is my campus and Fordham is my school!” That is not an understatement. While the Rose Hill campus is a typical campus …the entire New York area is where these kids grow up and learn the ropes of reality. That is an outstanding opportunity it seems to me, and somewhat unique…not even that Columbia and NYU can offer…because Fordham itself is so unique. </p>
<p>Come in the summer and enjoy your visit. But also come if you can during the academic year when students are on campus. We did that and I spent a lot of time talking to random students to get a feel for what kind of kids go there, and so forth. We visited a LOT of campuses around the country. We noted the good, the bad, the ugly everywhere and weighed our decision upon our own subjective criteria and needs. No school is perfect for everyone. We learned as much from the schools my kid walked away from as we did from those my kid had a high interest in attending. </p>
<p>Some people worship Georgetown, UVa etc and others say “nope…not my cup of tea.” (I use them only as random examples for argument sake.)</p>
<p>We are “outsiders”…not from the immediate area. My kid did just fine last year and made a LOT of friends. Dorm drama causes some of those friendships to get strained throughout the long year…but I suspect things will be back to normal with even those kids come their return to campus in August. The stories I am hearing from friends kids at schools all over the country are really no different. </p>
<p>One of the great things about Fordham is that there is no stereotypical student…all sorts of kids from all sorts of backgrounds, religious views (though it is predominantly Catholic), political views, socio-economic backgrounds etc. That makes it special…</p>
<p>But like all schools…the kids who wash out early do so largely for reasons related to their lifestyles…too much partying or being irresponsible. It really behooves your kid to make friends with and socialize with kids who take studying seriously and know how to manage their time well. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>monorail & alGorescousin,
Thank you for your helpful and thoughtful comments. We are eagerly awaiting our visit and will also try again when school is in session.</p>
<p>You are most welcome and I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Its getting very competitive at Fordham. 23,000 applications this year. Amazing. While its a great school, I would be remiss not to say that every person is an individual and different schools appeal to different kids/families for different reasons. </p>
<p>Both my D and her boyfriend believed they would end up at DIFFERENT schools, but fate had other plans. Now we are all glad it worked out as it did.</p>