University of Miami vs Fordham University

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I got into Fordham EA back in December and after visiting in the fall, I honestly thought that was going to be my home for the next 4 years, until they sent me back a financial package of only 12K per year, making it a whopping 50K per year. I live in Long Island, NY an hour away from Fordham and my intention is to appeal their financial aid decision (the middle class does not seem to fare well with financial aid) but I cannot do this until April.
That being said, the University of Miami accepted me yesterday and I never seriously considered it until I physically saw an acceptance, but I do not find out any scholarship and/or financial information until the end of March. I will be visiting within the next month. </p>

<p>I am majoring in economics with the intention of transferring into the Business School at either one of these two schools. Assuming they give me tuition at 40K a year (a tuition my parents and I agreed is the maximum we will pay as a combined effort), which school would you choose? Distance is not an issue for me and I have a lot of snow-bird relatives near Miami anyway.
Going based off of College News and Forbes, etc. is kind of subjective to my, so I would like so concrete opinions, facts, etc. </p>

2

<p>Outside opinion…Miami is viewed as a party school. Fordham is viewed more as a poor man’s Ivy. Don’t know if perceptions are valid but sometimes perception is reality. So if valid it depends upon what you want.</p>

3

<p>Its your decision. Your parents have a say in the matter due to cost of attendance. Financial aid is tricky and in a perfect world it only goes to those who truly need it. Sadly, a lot of monkey business goes on and you may be shocked when you get to college (regardless where) to see kids driving BMW’s and on “financial aid.” Or scholarships given to kids with lower SATs than you and you are stuck holding the student loan bag. So prepare yourself for the real world/adult world of chicanery, corruption and favoritism. </p>

<p>That being said, you should take this time to evaluate both schools in depth,the faculty, the programs, the location, the “fun factor”, the likelihood of your success at each institution, the internships, the student vibe. Do you want to go away to college and become your own person? Or do you want to want to be close to home? 60 years ago, or more, the norm was living at home and going to the “local college”. Students went “away to state college” but it had the large dorms and cheaper tuition. Today, a lot of students go away to expensive LAC’s and private colleges and going to the state school is tantamount to staying home, even if they live on campus. People are on the move and want to explore the world, not just repeat high school and live next door to mom. However, some choose to stay close to home and go to a private school for professional reasons as well.</p>

<p>You need to decide what you want out of life. Yes, its adult time. First major decision of your life. Life altering decision. (Hint: there really is no wrong decision. All these narcissistic kids who start crying and wanting to transfer out freshmen year are often just spoiled and have delusions of grandeur.) </p>

<p>There are party animals at all schools. There are a lot of irresponsible kids who are blowing parents money and then some, just drinking, taking drugs and misbehaving. I heard one parent say “that is what college is for…parties and sports!” How sad. </p>

<p>Also be aware that “changing majors” or “intended majors” is very very common. Some kids find a professor or department and decide to make a change. Others are disappointed or find out its not really them. (I know a kid intent on being an architecture student at Princeton and ended up becoming an art teacher! Yep.) Its about self actualization. </p>

<p>Fordham is in New York, as you know and its a lot different than Miami. Fordham is an academic school with a lot of competitive spirit (though not cut throat) for big intenships in Manhattan. Miami is a very good school with a lot of frats and sororities and nationally ranked sports teams. Where do you want to live when you graduate? What career path do you envision? Grad school? Study abroad? </p>

<p>What kind of people do you want to meet in college? Find out the demographics of the student body. Do you want to be around Long Islanders another four years? or different kids from different faith backgrounds? </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>Are those the only two schools you applied to? Because they may turn out to both be unaffordable. What are your other options?</p>

5

<p>How much are you and your parents able to pay? $40K total? If so, Fordham will be doable for you if you commute. Even doable if you lose your scholarship, and if costs go up. </p>

<p>UMiami will have to come up with more since you HAVE to live away from parents which is at least $10K right there. </p>

<p>If you need $40K total, then you are going to have a tough go even going to Fordham since even commuting is going to cost you that. You can borrow $5500 from Direct Loans, and you are likely to find a job if you look so that you can probably come up with $10K towards the cost. </p>

<p>If you get the money for both, it’s the atmosphere, the feel of the campus that is what makes the difference. It’s also nice to get away for college, so though I like F as a college more, I’d be inclined to recommend M, all things equal. </p>

6

<p>Thank you all so much for your responses! These are definitely things I will be looking into in before I make my ultimate decision. I did apply to other schools and while I am still waiting on 5 more, I did receive 25k scholarship to Hofstra and and a 19K scholarship to Ithaca, as well as admission into their Honors Colleges. My family understands my desire to go away, so it is not likely I will be at Hofstra next year. With that being said, to respond to cptofthehouse’s response, my family and I are willing to pay 40K a year and if I do attend Fordham, I am definitely dorming. </p>

7

<p>UPDATE: I have just been admitted into Penn State and if I go to Penn State, I will have little to no debt and I would walk into Penn State with 26 AP credits whereas I would not being granted as much at Fordham or UM. I do want to get an MBA after undergrad school (probably should’ve mentioned prior). Under these new circumstances, comments would be great! </p>

8

<p>Fordham is ranked higher than Miami both nationally and in economics. This would probably make a difference during your job interview. So if Fordham were to award me a better financial aid package, I’d go there. </p>

9

<p>Congratulations on your acceptances!</p>

<p>My S will graduate from Fordham in May. He went into Fordham with 24 AP credits and all were accepted. Assuming you get a 3 or higher on the exams, the issue with AP’s isn’t that they won’t accept the credits but rather that few of them will count toward the core. They will count toward electives though and had my S chosen a different major instead of Theatre he could have graduated a year early! So do consider that with careful planning you might be able to graduate early. And if you really want to study business then you should call admissions and ask for a ransfer to Gabelli ASAP bc the core requirements are slightly different. I’m not sure why you planned to wait or why you didn’t just apply to Gabelli in the first place.</p>

<p>If Fordham is your top choice you should definitely let them know that you will attend if you can work out the finances and appeal your award. In doing so, it does help to share your awards from other schools. Also, keep in mind that you can request a triple which will lower your housing costs at least for the first year. But you do still have to plan on your costs increasing over the four years…COA has increased roughly $1k per year since my S has been there. We live on LI, too, and he lived in the dorm for three years, now has an off campus apartment which is slightly cheaper.</p>

<p>As much as you would like to make a decision you need to wait until you have all your acceptances and awards given the $40k parameters your parents have given you. After you know which schools you can afford, visit your top choices and make your decision based on having little to no debt, first, and experience and strength in major, second.</p>

<p>Good luck! </p>

10

<p>Yes Miami is typically seen as a party school but it is also one of the best schools out there it just depends how you balance your time, not everyone parties as for fardham i think you should explain your situation and in sure they will make some sort of exception for you</p>

11

<p>Miami is a MUCH better school than people give credit to on these boards. In addition, you would be in sunny Miami. How great is that?! However, with that said, I would pick the school that is lowest in total cost, which includes room and board. which is expensive in Manhattan.
Also, I don’t consider Fordham the “poor man’s ivy.” Frankly, as an employer, I think of Fordham as about the same in quality and admission as that of Miami. </p>

12

<p>For a recruiter, I’d say all schools are of equal value.
The two criteria to apply there will thus be (1) finances and (2) fit.</p>

<p>(1) You have two choices:

  • go where it’s the cheapest but see if your parents will allow you to use the “saved money” for extras: study abroad, summer school for a double major, internships, help purchasing a car, help to pay for your MBA (be aware that you can’t go straight from college to MBA, accredited programs require 2-5 years work first), help with rent if you end up with a low-paying job/internship in Manhattan…
  • go where you’re within budget, regardless of total, since your parents have said they can afford 40k.</p>

<p>(2) Any criteria that are “'must have” for you? sports? location? Faith? Size? Career Center? Weather?
UMiami and Penn State are both big sports schools.
Fordham and UMiami are both in big cities.
Fordham is Catholic (it does affect identity and classes to take), UM and PSU are secular.
Number of students varies considerably between the three (Fordham: 8,000; UMiami: 15,000; PSu: 40,000.)
Possible majors are also very different.
Only Penn State is in a “college town”’ (in my opinion, you’re only an undergrad once, so you can only “live it” as an undergrad to appreciate it as it’s meant to be - even as a grad student, it’ll be a different experience. But it’s very subjective, YMMV! )
Which one will help your career (how common/easy/competitive is it to get internships? Where? How do the alumni help/or not? What firms recruit there? => email all three career centers).
Where do you want to work? Fordham and PSU will help you especially for the Northeast, UMiami in the South.
UMiami will be sunny all year round, with nice (if slightly sweaty) weather from October to March and tropical humid/hot at the beginning of the Fall semester and the end of the Spring semester (not good for allergies but potentially excellent for many people).
Obviously Fordham and PSu would be cold and snowy from November to March.</p>