<p>I'm a junior who wants to attend a small-to-mid sized college in or near a large urban area. I plan on majoring in Environmental Science, with a minor in PoliSci, Anthropology, Sociology, Spanish, or a hard science, with the ultimate goal of working in conservation policy and advocacy.</p>
<p>In terms of stats, my GPA is 4.0UW, I'm second in a class of about 500, and my ACT with writing is 35. I'll almost certainly be a NMSF, since my PSAT was 10 points above last year's cutoff for my state. I'm heavily involved in school and community theatre, conservation advocacy and education (including a summer internship with the SCA), and tutoring ESL students. I'm Latina and speak fluent Spanish.</p>
<p>I know that, given good essays and recs, I'm a fairly likely candidate for Fordham, but I was wondering if it makes sense to consider it as a true safety, rather than a safe-ish match. Does the Fordham admissions office sometimes waitlist students that they think are "overqualified"? I genuinely like the school and would likely attend over my state flagship. I plan on visiting in March, if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>Nobody here works for admissions and we dont know the inside scoop on the matrix. But anecdotally we do hear things and see things. </p>
<p>First, you need to develop a bit more humility. Congrats on the stats and scores but you will be far from alone at any college you attend. </p>
<p>Second, admissions counselors are loath to review files that reek of arrogance and “I am applying to your safety school” type of applications. They might well defer you for that alone. </p>
<p>Safety schools are so named based on individual students scores and stats relative to the school admissions stats. If you are in the 25th percentile of applicants, its a reach to you. If you are in the 75th percentile or higher its a safety to YOU. If you are in the middle 50th percentile of accepted students, then you are a match for that school.</p>
<p>Fordham accepts top students who are in the top 1% of their class, and have SAT scores to match. They often give them amazing scholarships, like full tuition. But they have also deferred people who tell them they arent that interested and really want to go to an IVY and dont really care about Fordham. </p>
<p>Fordham is an academic school. It will challenge you and the better work you do the more work professors will give you. My kid was in an honors program (not freshmen honors college) and had classmates with 1600 SAT’s and she knows for a fact she either matched or exceeded their grades on some papers. </p>
<p>Pick 2 -3 reach schools, 4-5 match schools and 2-3 safety schools relative to your scores as they measure against THAT school. Never apply to a school you cant see yourself attending and being happy and succeeding. Never.</p>
<p>Apply to schools you like and you think you can do well. </p>
<p>Keep up the good work, and do your research on schools in the meantime. Good luck</p>
<p>Nobody here works for admissions, but if you want to use Fordham as your safety I’d strongly suggest applying EA so then you will know for certain if you get in by mid-December. It is likely you would get merit aid and you may want to look into Fordham’s honor program (which is by invitation only but you could qualify) as well. </p>
<p>There is nothing to indicate Fordham Admissions waitlists or otherwise plays games with highly qualified students. Fordham accepts many students whose stats suggest they would be competitive for the most selective schools. If you do go to Fordham, you will find many of those amongst your peers.</p>
<p>To anybody out there, when considering a “safety,” be sure to consider financial matters, as well as the other factors. Some students choose Fordham over the most highly-competitive schools for financial reasons and, similarly, some choose their state schools over Fordham for financial reasons, as well.</p>
<p>Okay, lecturing from other users aside, you are totally going to get in, and get a full tuition scholarship. The only catch is don’t be stupid and make them think you have no intention of going.</p>
<p>Sign up for Parchment.com using a fake name and it will give you fairly accurate chances at universities. That will be useful in determining safeties (for example, if you used Parchment it would tell you have a 98% chance of admission to Fordham).</p>
<p>I agree with StagNation that it is very unlikely that you won’t be accepted to Fordham. If you are a NMSF, you will most likely be offered the NMSF full tuition scholarship. You might also be invited to join the honor program. My D had similar stats, very high standardized test scores, a good gpa from a very competitive high school, and was admitted to many ‘higher ranked’ schools. We all felt that Fordham would be a great place for her, and it has surpassed our expectations. She is having a wonderful college experience - challenging, interesting courses, great, caring professors, and intelligent, fun and lovely classmates. </p>
<p>It doesn’t appear to me that Fordham does the ‘waitlisting of top students to increase their yield’ thing; they seem to accept the top students and offer merit scholarships to make the offer of admission more enticing. (But that waitlisting of top students is done by other schools - my older D, who attended one of the HYP schools, was waitlisted by Brandeis).</p>
<p>As I recall, there were examples in threads from previous years where people with super stats were deferred from Fordham and surprised. I dont want to belabor the point. Fordham looks for a mix of students and having uber stats is never a guarantee of admission at Fordham or anywhere else for that matter. </p>
<p>I agree its highly likely the OP is admitted if the grades remain high and the SAT score is accurate. I am not saying they wont be admitted. But I also know anecdotally that students who project “I am applying to xyz safety school” can be surprised. Schools are not obligated to accept anyone just because they have high stats. They do offer very good scholarships to the top 1% of applicants and try hard to recruit them, like any other school. </p>
<p>If an applicant makes it apparent that they wont attend the school even if admitted and offered a scholarship and are using it solely to collect admission letters and are just waiting on the Ivy to come through…they could be very surprised by a deferral. That is what I was trying to convey. </p>
<p>Fordham is still desperate to attract top stats students so you will get in with a scholarship. But Fordham should not be your only safety, that’s your local state university.</p>
<p>Hi I applied to Fordham as a safety school, and I got in EA with a scholarship.
However, I didn’t know how intense the other applicants were until after I applied, so no. Fordham couldn’t REALLY be considered a safety school because there are many many overqualfied candidates who apply</p>
<p>Schools arent reach, match or safety as labels on their front gates so to speak. They are reach, match or safety in relation to individual applicant’s scores and stats, for THAT student. </p>
<p>Fordham gets more than 40,000 applications a year, and more than 18,000 in the EA cycle. A large portion of those applicants are also applying to higher ranking schools including Ivy League schools and elite LAC’s in the northeast. (Or the UC system in California, e.g.) While a lot of those who are admitted EA and RD who have very high stats and are admitted elsewhere will in fact go elsewhere (for prestige or money or being closer to home or some other personal reason), it is also true that a high number of accepted students with high scores and stats will in fact accept the offer of admission and attend Fordham. </p>
<p>You cannot judge Fordham (nor any school) based on reported SAT avgs or gpa’s in USNWR reports, or even just from Fordham’s own disclosed median scores. The median score is a point on a line. </p>
<p>Fordham will surprise a lot of students who show up and find out their classmates are very very smart. And they will find out their faculty are extraordinary (a high percentage have Ivy League credentials either at undergraduate level or doctoral level). </p>
<p>Fordham graduates are prized and get jobs. In Manhattan, the northeast, across the country. My kid was plucked out of a pile of resumes BECAUSE it was Fordham…an unknown to her employer who wanted to see what Fordham was all about…someone different and someone with the temerity to attend school far away from home and in the Bronx, instead of the same kind of kids who went down the road to the nationally ranked state flagship. </p>
<p>To those who applied to an Ivy or elite LAC like Williams (or even Villanova), I hope sincerely you get in there. But before you make a final decision, please consider what Fordham offers you, its unique posture as being a gorgeous campus in the middle of New York City, plus a campus at Lincoln Center adjacent to Julliard School. </p>
@ImNYUobsessed is right. When I applied to Fordham (2011), it COULD be considered a safety if you were the type of kid who’d have a decent chance at top schools. I’m sure some top applicants got denied for whatever, reason, but it was a very good chance. From what I hear though it’s gotten more selective, so maybe I was wrong with my earlier statement.
Still though, a safety is a school that you can get in AND pay. Fordham is like top 20 most expensive schools, so even if you can get in easy, maybe you won’t get a scholarship, so it’s not a true safety.
I agree that If you want to use Fordham as your safety you would need to know it is affordable. In addition, I’d apply EA so you will have an admission decision by mid-December. More than likely you would get scholarship money and you could be a candidate for the honors program.
I applied to Fordham as a safety school, and I got in EA with a scholarship.