<p>Will Fordham once again rise in the rankings for 2010? If so, what determines whether they rise or fall in the rankings?</p>
<p>I hope they rise. I remember reading that they’ve risen something like 23 spots in the past 5 years- ridiculous, but very positive. </p>
<p>US News Rankings depend on things like class size, selectivity, and how you’re viewed among your peers (aka other college presidents’ opinions of your school.) It’s a little vague, (esp. that last one) but I think they’re getting better every year.</p>
<p>anyone else think Northeastern will, or should, rise from 96?</p>
<p>From what I (might have eavesdropped and heard) the goal is to have Fordham in the top 30 by 2010.</p>
<p>top 30 by 2010? that’s crazy lol.</p>
<p>Yeah, I think top 30 by 2010 may have been a joke. But maybe the administration has said that. If so, there is nothing wrong with lofty goals.</p>
<p>If Fordham is to rise in the rankings, what will be propelling them this time? Were admissions more competitive this year?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s what I heard was Fr. McShane’s goal. A bunch of department chairs and some people from the Fordham Alumni committee met during the summer in RH and were discussing it. They said that the thing all of the top schools had in common, that Fordham didn’t, was either an engineering or medical school.</p>
<p>I don’t know what their/his actual plan is though. I started zoning out after awhile.</p>
<p>I did hear that the Alum head, or whatever she is, thinks that Fordham Alum are cheap and it’s impossible to get donations from them. And that another thing top schools had in common was a strong connection with their alumni, while Fordham is still trying to figure out which alums are dead and who’s alive. </p>
<p>Their words, not mine.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, Plattsburgh.</p>
<p>I wonder if the Fordham/Yeshiva agreement to share medical school resources is a result of the conversations you heard about, though I am not aware of the perqs gained by that agreement or the what Fordham is offering to Yeshiva for the agreement.</p>
<p>I heard the goal is top 50.</p>
<p>I heard theres a delay of several years because the data they use is a few years old in some cases. </p>
<p>Theres been some major changes at RPI, but the rankings have only slightly improved. (acceptance rates cut in half over a period of 2 years, more faculty) I know people were expecting a jump of several places, it may be this year.</p>
<p>The plan was for Fordham to be a top 25 undergrad by 2016, its 175th anniversary year.</p>
<p>the plan “was” or “is”</p>
<p>I guess youll find out in 2016, wont you :D</p>
<p>oh and the countdown begins…only a couple hours left till the new rankings…</p>
<p>^^ Really? I’m looking forward to seeing those. Assuming I can find the page; I always get lost and US News’ website.</p>
<p>Fordham retains its ranking at number 61. Somewhat disappointing considering the huge increase in applications and rise in freshmen stats and the announced construction going on at FCLC and FCRH. Oh well…maybe next year.</p>
<p>61 is still top 1 or 2% in the nation (not what CC would have to believe) out 4,400+ colleges. Though that figure also includes community and trade schools.</p>
<p>Its a reasonable ranking. I noticed that our peer schools in the immediate same relative area: Sycracuse and Clemson and U Minnesota remained the same. I just think we deserve credit for the huge increase in facilities/construction going on, the huge increase in applications and freshmen stats. Maybe next year. Where do I think we belong? Hard to say…being in the top50 is a laudable and very reasonable goal that I think can be attained in 5 more years. Catching BC and Georgetown? Not likely. USNWR says sports has nothing to do with it, but I wonder. Sports affects a school’s notoriety good or bad. Its no accident BC moved up dramatically after Doug Flutie threw that pass and they moved to the ACC. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>I think Fordham’s acceptance rate fell to 46.6% from 42%. Also construction has no tangible or direct influence or rankings; it may help us in an indirect way in the long run with recruiting more students. A good sports program also helps a team in an indirect way. If we improve our sports programs and make it to national tournaments year after year, more people hear about Fordham. A lot of people outside the east coast, let alone New York, have not heard of Fordham. If you look at some of our peer schools around our ranking (Syracuse, Uconn, Rutgers), we have a better student body than these schools. However, the reputation of these schools far exceeds Fordham’s IMO. So, I think for the time being, 61 is fitting. I think building and improving sports programs takes years so it is not a viable route for us to improve Fordham’s reputation in the short term so it should solely be done for the purposes of us getting better in sports and being able to compete in order to improve school spirit and morale. </p>
<p>A better way of getting our name out in the short term would be throwing A LOT more money into marketing and PR. Fordham needs to become a brand like NYU and needs to be marketed to a lot more households. Fordham also needs to become a top choice for many students and not just a safety to NYU (if you look at Fordham’s profile for the class of 2012, Fordham had to accept 11,075 students to fill out a class of 1,871 (that is a yield rate of only 17%). The only reason Fordham accepts so many students is because they know a lot of the students will turn the school down for either NYU/ivy or other financially viable alternative like Baruch. The total number of applications were 23,761 - we need to get that up to around 25,000 and accept only 9,000 (acceptance rate of 36%). So let’s say if they need to fill out a class with 1,800 students (they are looking at a yield rate of about 20% which is very achievable). Also, pump more money into scholarships so that you are not losing out on students that have scored 1350 and above on the SAT (the mid to high 1300 students are very critical for us and Fordham needs to make every effort to retain these students). I myself scored a 1350 but was only offered $4,200 a year in scholarships (I did have only a B+ school average). I could have turned the school down with no other forms of financial aid but I ended up attending the school because it was close to home and the campus/academics were good.</p>
<p>What bothers me is that even in NY, there are some students that have never heard of Fordham or do not know much at all about the school and view it in the same light as other lower tier NYC schools such as Baruch, Pace, St. Johns, etc. So what it often comes down to for these students is, why should I attend Fordham and dish out $25,000-$50,000 (depending on AID), when I can attend a CUNY/SUNY for less than $10,000 a year? I attended a public high school in Queens, NY and graduated in the class of 2005 with more than 900 students. There were only about ten other stuents that applied (compared to the hundreds that applied to NYU, CUNY, SUNY) and only one other students along with me attended the school. We had more students attending Columbia and Cornell than Fordham (think about that statistic given the selectivity of those two schools and we were not the smartest school). I think a good percentage of our draw from the NY area comes from catholic/private schools that know and appreciate how good Fordham is. Hopefully, we can spread this to all of the schools in NY and every state.</p>
<p>The only we we can offer more scholarships and increase marketing is through more donations from our alumni (ALOT more) and better appropriation of funds. They need to find a way to double the scholarships that they give out if they want a better student body, which can only help us out in the long term. In the next three to five years, our avg SAT avg no matter what needs to go up to 1300 and the acceptance rate needs to dip below 40% for us to even be looked with any type of seriousness as a good academic school (thereby also increasing Peer Assessment scores which weigh 40% into US news). This is the only we can even dream about sniffing the top 40-50. Just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>Fordham has shot through the rankings over the past decade, but to go from 61 to top 30 in a year is impossible, especially when schools like William & Mary have been stuck just under the top 30 for decades.</p>
<p>The problem with colleges like Fordham, NYU and Sarah Lawrence is that they’re good schools, but not so outstanding that people would turn down a great State U for them. These schools are just as expensive as Ivies but not considered as elite - many people might be willing to go into debt for Columbia, but not for Fordham, NYU, Sarah Lawrence, etc. I go to NYU and almost turned it down for Binghamton, and now my sister loves Fordham but might turn it down for Geneseo. For much of America it doesn’t make sense to pay for a private college unless it’s a really good, top private college. I know NYU received fewer applications this year because of the economy and I’m sure most private colleges also did.</p>
<p>Also, when you rise in rankings, that means another college has to go down - and look at the top 30 schools, do you think they’re getting worse? Like Fordham, they get more selective each year and add more resources and facilities to draw students. Those schools also have the advantage of being well-known for years - UVA and Boston College have maintained a strong reputation for longer than Fordham and many parents - who strongly influence where kids go to college - haven’t heard of Fordham because it wasn’t well known when they were young. Same with NYU, it was considered crappier in the 60’s and 70’s and some parents are surprised it’s now considered a good school.</p>