<p>Actually, Fordham was one of the few schools whose applications went up for the class of 2013 (I believe it went up to 24,000 from 23,761). I like your point on how parents have a bearing on the student’s decision and that many of them have not heard of Fordham. I would disagree with you though on one point. NYU is getting to a point where students do not turn it down for state schools or cheaper alternatives. After all, NYU is regarded the #1 dream school in the country and a lot of students take huge loans and make it across the country just to experience NYC/Greenwich Village. </p>
<p>NYU</p>
<p>Admissions Statistics (Fall, 2009)</p>
<pre><code>* Number of Applications: 36,944
Offers of Admission: 10,862 (29,4% accepted)
Number Enrolled: 4,650 (42.8% yield rate)
</code></pre>
<p>Fordham</p>
<p>Admissions Statistics (Fall, 2008)</p>
<pre><code>* Number of Applications: 23,761
Offers of Admission: 11,075 (46.6% accepted)
Number Enrolled: 1,871 (16.89% yield rate)
</code></pre>
<p>Almost half of the students that were accepted by NYU decided to attend the school v/s almost fifth of the students that were accepted by Fordham who decided to attend. You do the math - clearly a lot of students want to attend NYU and I do not see that many students turning the school down for state schools. I am assuming that the other half that decide not to attend comprise mainly of students that were accepted into better schools (Wharton v/s Stern, ivies, etc) and used NYU as a safety. </p>
<p>I also want to throw out a glaring statistic which Fordham can use to its advantage. Notice that the number of applications NYU gets is 7.94 times its incoming class size. On the other hand, the number of applications Fordham gets is 12.94 times its incoming class size. So in theory, Fordham’s acceptance rate can be less than NYU’s if it gets to same level of reputation. It is amazing considering Fordham’s much smaller size and nationwide reputation, that it almost gets the same number of applications as NYU. The upside potential is really good, just imagine what will happen as more and more people outside catholic high schools find out about Fordham. If Fordham can market itself to these other prospective stuents and can improve its facilities and image to cater to these students, the sky is the limit.</p>
<p>Actually, Fordham was one of the few schools whose applications went up for the class of 2013 (I believe it went up to 24,000 from 23,761). I like your point on how parents have a bearing on the student’s decision and that many of them have not heard of Fordham. I would disagree with you though on one point. NYU is getting to a point where students do not turn it down for state schools or cheaper alternatives. After all, NYU is regarded the #1 dream school in the country and a lot of students take huge loans and make it across the country just to experience NYC/Greenwich Village. </p>
<p>NYU</p>
<p>Admissions Statistics (Fall, 2009)</p>
<pre><code>* Number of Applications: 36,944
Offers of Admission: 10,862 (29,4% accepted)
Number Enrolled: 4,650 (42.8% yield rate)
</code></pre>
<p>Fordham</p>
<p>Admissions Statistics (Fall, 2008)</p>
<pre><code>* Number of Applications: 23,761
Offers of Admission: 11,075 (46.6% accepted)
Number Enrolled: 1,871 (16.89% yield rate)
</code></pre>
<p>Almost half of the students that were accepted by NYU decided to attend the school v/s almost fifth of the students that were accepted by Fordham who decided to attend. You do the math - clearly a lot of students want to attend NYU and I do not see that many students turning the school for state schools. I am assuming that the other half that decide not to attend comprise mainly of students that were accepted into better schools (Wharton v/s Stern, ivies, etc) and used NYU as a safety. </p>
<p>I also want to throw out a glaring statistic which Fordham can use to its advantage. Notice that the number of applications NYU gets is 7.94 times the incoming class size. Fordham, on the other hand, the number of application it gets is 12.94 times the incoming class size. So in theory, Fordham’s acceptance rate can be less than NYU’s if it gets to same level of reputation. It is amazing considering Fordham’s size and nationwide reputation, that it almost gets the same number of applications as NYU. The upside potential is really good as more and more people find out about Fordham and the acceptance rate will go down as the yield rate goes uo,</p>
<p>Its interesting that Fordham, though officially ranked 61st, is 34th according to the guidance counselor rankings (on the US News homepage). To me it seems like a case of reputation catching up with quality.</p>
<p>Although Fordham’s rank did not rise, it’s score went up one point – from 49 to 50, which would have placed us in a tie with Boston University in the 2009 rankings. </p>
<p>Below are the six key indicators, with Fordham’s score from '09 and '10 (written like this: 22/19. The latter, of course, representing the '10 score.)</p>
<p>Peer Assessment: 3.1/3.1 (no change)</p>
<p>Graduation and Retention Rank: 55/53 (up two spots)</p>
<p>Faculty Resources Rank: 68/64 (up four spots)</p>
<p>Student Selectivity Rank: 70/71 (down one spot)</p>
<p>Financial Resources Rank: 122/122 (no change)</p>
<p>Alumni Giving Rank: 53/38 (up 15 spots)</p>
<p>Overall, things moved in the right direction for Fordham. I wonder if the peer assessment is done every year or is it two years behind, like other sections of the test? Also, I wonder if the financial resources rank is calculated every year? </p>
<p>Finally, it seems to me that our student selectivity rank is unfair. Having students from the top 10% of their high school class weighs heavily into the selectivity rank, but most of Fordham’s students come from more competitive, elite private schools. How is this an objective comparison? If UC - Irvine attracts most of its students from mediocre public schools in California, how is it possible to compare the two – entering Fordham students probably have higher SAT scores, but fewer graduate in the top 10% of their class.</p>
<p>Either way, I am happy that Fordham continues to improve.</p>
<p>…what engineering? I left Fordham specifically to attend a school with engineering.
Fordham has only ever offered one engineering course, I believe it might have been intro to electrical engineering if I recall correctly and it was very rarely offered. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, it is not an engineering school, as an LAC, it’s quite far from it in fact.</p>
<p>With that claim, I’m wondering how much you even know about Fordham.</p>
<p>Your entire post is a giant “no duh.” A school without engineering probably wouldn’t make the best engineering school. You might as well go on a rant about their non-existent med school as well.</p>
<p>One of the most interesting facts I noticed in the entire listing of colleges in USNWR is that all 28 Jesuit Colleges and Universities did amazingly well in their respective categories, whether that was the very tough National University category, the Liberal Arts Colleges or the Master’s Universities. Which speaks volumes about the quality of education at any Jesuit college and their reputation. </p>
<p>From Loyola Marymount to Loyola-New Orleans to Xavier to Marquette to Loyola Chicago to Loyola Maryland, Holy Cross and Fordham…as a group, the Jesuits did very, very well and we should all applaud.</p>
<p>I agree that the ranks are misleading. Some of these really good private/prep schools have like 80 students so you have to be in the top 8 in order to be top 10%. But then again, a lot of the really good private schools do not rank. Either ways, we cannot deny that Fordham ends up getting the lower tier of students from the good private schools instead of the best that end up going to the ivies. It is reflected through our poor SAT avg (1240) and that along with the acceptance rate counts for 60% of the selectivity (40% being GPA). We definitely need to step up and get the SAT up to 1300.</p>
<p>But one thing’s for sure - even if Fordham increases the quality of the student body, selectivity only accounts for 15% of the total methodology (IMHO it should be around 25%). But either way, the average SAT and GPA still need to go up (and the acceptance rate needs to go down to 35%) in order for the school to be taken seriously by others.
Some observations:
1)
We are ranked #53 for Graduation and Retention Rank. This is 25% of the total rankings if you include “Graduation Performance.” This is a good sign as well as a good starting point as to where we can expect the school to be ranked. 53 seems like a reasonable goal (we are already 25% of the way there if you understand what I mean). If you include the alumni giving rate (rank # 38), we are 30% of the way there towards a top 50 ranking. We just need to maintain the graduation rates and perhaps get even better in this department (probably ties into getting a better student body).</p>
<p>2) Our faculty resources rank (20% of rankings) is 64. We should aim for the top 50. 35% of the 20% is faculty compensation and 30% is class size (1-19 students). The other 25% is class size (less than 50) and faculty holding terminal degree in their fields. 96 percent of faculty hold a terminal degree and almost 100% of the classes are less than 50 students. We just need to pump more money into the faculty (higher better teachers, give more salary, and the infrastructure by adding more buildings/classrooms so that more classes are under 20 students).</p>
<p>I think these two factors are under our control. And if we can maintain the alumni give back rate, we have already taken care of 50% of the rankings. Everything else will take care of itself over time. As the school raises more money, we will be able to give out more and more scholarships, thereby improving the quality of the student body. Our financial resources rank is a petty 122 and that is 10%. And Peer Assessment you really cannot do much about. You just hope that academic authorities just take notice. That goes back to improved student body. No one can take you seriously if your SAT average is not at least a 1300.</p>
<p>All of this criteria at the end of the day is going to tie to how much money the school can raise. I urge all of the Fordham faithful to give to the school as much as they can. We have a lot of passionate alumni, evidenced by the 38% give back rate, it is a huge increase in one year, so obviously the school is doing the right thing by appealing to these people. Our PR/marketing needs to get better and I do not know if you guys noticed, but Fordham has been heavily advertised on US News website. We’re headed in the right direction and I think a reasonable goal is that we will be ranked in the top 50 in the next 3-5 years.</p>