Fordham Lincoln Center- Down and Off
Fordham Rose Hill- Same
Fordham double feature! With DS27 we started at Fordham Lincoln Center. The information session was packed. The speaker was engaging but not a lot of new information was provided. I appreciated the frankness of being told submit SAT of 1380 and above, otherwise don’t submit.
The campus is just a couple of buildings in one square block of city with its own private courtyard “campus”. It is in a fantastic part of Manhattan. As small as it was, it felt more like a unified campus to me than NYU since access to the green space (what little there is) is restricted to people connected to the school. Fordham did a great job of making it feel like a little bubble separated from the city. The buildings are all connected indoors so you don’t have to go outside in the winter. (When my kids were little I read them a book series called Sideways Stories from Wayside School about an elementary school mistakenly built as a skyscraper and the Lincoln Center campus reminded me of this). Be prepared for a lot of elevator riding if you come here.
We didn’t see a dorm during the tour, which I thought was a loss for Fordham because if you look online the freshman dorms look fantastic.
I loved the Lincoln Center campus- an insulated little fort of a campus with central Manhattan right outside the walls (and Central Park two blocks away). Unfortunately my son didn’t have the same reaction. “No way. It feels like a prison. There will probably be days that I don’t even go outside.” Ok then! Off the list and onto the subway.
We rode the subway to the Bronx and made it to the Rose Hill campus. One area outside the campus has the New York Botanical Gardens and an Italian neighborhood known for its restaurants and bakeries. We came from a different direction and it was loud, chaotic, and a little rough. Crossing into the Rose Hill campus was entering a gorgeous green oasis with striking Gothic architecture. It really is a beautiful campus. Everyone was super friendly and people seemed happy here. My son definitely preferred this campus to Lincoln Center, even though that campus is closer to possible business internship opportunities and all the other amenities of Manhattan. Everything is still accessible from the Bronx- it’s just that it’s a 30+ minute ride away and you need a little more planning to go into Manhattan.
I will mention that as a Jewish family the Jesuit nature of Fordham was more apparent and its presence felt on the Rose Hill campus much more than at Boston College or Georgetown to us. It was not noticeable at all at Lincoln Center. Even though it felt more prominent at Rose Hill it wasn’t significant enough to prevent my son from applying.
Rose Hill stays on the list for now. My son likes the business school curriculum and access to Manhattan. He wasn’t so excited about the surrounding neighborhood that we walked through. Stay tuned…