<p>I'm a current Fordham student in the class of 2013. I've spent a lot of time at both LC and RH so I know a bit about both. If you want to know anything about student life, volunteering, classes, admittance, the (insanely huge) new core, or anything else feel free to ask! I'll try to answer everything as quickly as I can. =]
Good luck!</p>
<p>do you like it?</p>
<p>The vast majority of it yes. I have problems with a few individual aspects of the school (primarily in academic areas), but overall I think it is a wonderful university that is truly dedicated to helping the community it is in. There are strengths and weaknesses of each campus but together they seem to solve many of one another’s problems.</p>
<p>what campus are you on?</p>
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<p>Would you mind elaborating? I’m interested as for I am skeptical about some areas of the academics. I’m open for PM if you are not comfortable posting in public.</p>
<p>There are two main problems I’ve encountered, the language department and the new core. Essentially, the school is testing out a new intensive language courses that places anyone who is new to the language they want to take into an intensive 5 credit course. This course is extremely difficult even for the best students and there is no way around it. There are a few good teachers in the language department who are helpful, but not all teachers are devoted to their students and because this is a 5 credit class it has the potential to do serious gpa damage.
The other issue is the new core which has 21+ courses depending on AP credits and language ability. Most AP tests, however, will not count towards the core requirement. Also, the two campuses do not work together on this. All core classes must be taken at the campus you attend. If you try to take a core class at another campus it will not be counted.
On the positive side, though, the school does a fantastic job maintaining its status as a Jesuit university without seeming to force their religion on others. They’ve managed to find a flexibility where if you are a religious person you can feel that in the courses, but if you are not a religious person you won’t feel pressured to become religious (no papers on “My relationship with God” or anything of the sort).
Also, the school has this thing called a service learning class which is a great opportunity I highly suggest you look into. It is basically any course in which you can find a community service tie in. You do the service, write two papers on its correlation to the course, go to one extra seminar and can receive an extra credit for doing this.</p>
<p>Hey 
</p>
<p>I just got into the international studies program at Fordham at LC, I was wondering what the course is like? </p>
<p>How is diversity at LC? Is there much to do? I am an international student, are there many at LC? Is the campus safe? How is manhattan? safe?</p>
<p>My parents are convinced that I’m going to get raped, mugged, and kidnapped at Fordham. How safe is the area, actually?</p>
<p>Quickly I’ll say that in regards to the international studies program, I don’t know much as far as specifics but you probably will not take any programs related to it until fall/ spring of junior year so you have plenty of time to find out more once you get to Fordham.
LC is especially know for diversity, there are people from all over the world and every race/ ethnicity/ gender/ gender orientation is fully incorporated into the student body. It is not a place where even the slightest bit of discrimination is tolerated.</p>
<p>Safety was a huge issue for my family too. There are tons of worries with both campuses that because it’s NYC horrible things will happen. The best response is that yes, there are dangers to living in NYC but there are also dangers to living in Boston, DC, LA, or any other town/ city in the country. However, if you exercise basic common sense, Fordham has taken all measures to keep you safe. There are very dedicated security guards at every entrance at both campuses and RH is completely gated (and has “emergency” boxes all over campus, hit the button and security races over). No one will get on campus without an ID. Are there cases of students getting mugged? Yes. We actually get an e-mail any time there is a security threat which is how I know 99% of the muggings that have happened this year have been within 3 blocks of an ATM between 1 and 4 in the morning. So basically if you use common sense- meaning don’t go out in the middle of the night, don’t do stupid dangerous things, don’t walk around areas you don’t know alone, etc you will be absolutely fine. I don’t think it’s NYC that is dangerous but how you act in NYC, so if you are at the least moderately responsible Fordham is perfectly safe.
I have yet to hear of even an attempted rape/ kidnap at either campus and I honestly don’t expect to. Lincoln Center is probably one of the top 3 richest areas in NYC, and Rose Hill is across the street from both the Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo (literally, turn left into campus, right into the garden). By this I’m saying that LC is one of the safest parts of the city, and RH is one of the best parts of the Bronx. Beyond that, Fordham is extremely aware of its location and goes above and beyond (in a good way) to ensure the safety of every single student.</p>
<p>Sorry for all the long answers! I have a lot to say I guess. XD</p>
<p>Which campus do you prefer?</p>
<p>I love being in Manhattan at LC but RH feels more like actually being at college so personally I prefer RH. It’s really dependent on what you want to get out of college though.</p>
<p>I was accepted to the Lincoln Center campus as a freshman and was just wondering about how big the class sizes are. I’m sure it depends on the course, but class size is pretty important to me.
I was also wondering about how close of a relationship the professors have with their students. Is it easy to talk with professors outside of class and ask for help if needed?
Any reply to these questions would be great!</p>
<p>Can you speak to the difficulty of the course work?</p>
<p>I’m so glad you brought up your qualm with the language requirement. I’m strongly considering Fordham and that was one of my concerns. I want to start a new language and I was initially thinking of taking up Arabic, but now I’m considering Latin or Greek as the intro courses seem less intense than the others (they’re only three credit courses).</p>
<p>I am so glad you brought up the language requirement, too! I was comparing Fordham to Boston University and I found that Fordham only has 2 hours (total) of language class a week where as BU has 4 hours. (Is that accurate about FU?) And I was concerned because I really do want to learn French - so it was a slight downfall. With that being said, do you think that the intense program would be to my benefit? Or is it still insane for people who really want to learn?</p>
<p>In addition to the difficulty of the work - could you talk about grades to expect? How hard is a 4.0 or anything above a 3.75?</p>
<p>Whopper8: It varies greatly depending on the class. I’d say half my classes have been larger (30-40 kids) and half have been smaller (12-20 kids). The english classes and EP classes tend to be smaller where as Intro to X tends to be larger. So far many of my teachers have been really wonderful. All have been easily accessible and most will go well beyond what’s required of them if the student shows genuine interest and dedication. </p>
<p>I’m going to try to answer seke67 and monoclide’s questions together…
The difficulty of the courses is largely dependent on who teaches it. The same class can be impossible with one teacher and a piece of cake with another. ALL classes expect you to be a WELL ABOVE AVERAGE writer. You will not come out of Fordham with A’s unless you can express thoughts in an organized, eloquent manner. Other than that, teachers are usually very explicit about what you will need to know and if you study A’s are definitely possible. However, not all teachers are like this. I had one teacher in the fall who does not give A’s- he said the first day of class “I don’t believe in A’s, if you can write an A paper you shouldn’t be in college.” And he stuck to it, the highest grade anyone got on any paper was an A-/B+. If you put the work into being prepared for every class, taking notes the entire 1:15 block, and follow up with teachers an A is manageable, but by no means easy.</p>
<p>Language! Monoclide, I’m not sure where you found that statistic but it is very wrong. For the intro level to most languages you will spend 4 hours 45 minutes to 6 hours in class. The higher credit “intensive” intro classes are meant to take you from knowing nothing of the language to a basic level of fluency where you could converse with the teacher freely and are not optional for most languages. If you are naturally good at languages, can memorize 200-300 words a week along with grammar concepts/ irregulars, and have confidence in pronunciation go ahead and take french. Otherwise, you might want to take a summer course in it or do Rosetta Stone like programs first then test into the next course up to avoid the 5 credit possible grade killer. Seke67, if you want to learn Arabic I’d recommend sticking with it. One of my friends took Arabic and even though she said it was not easy, she said the teacher was great and really took time to help everyone.
In the end, as much as I feel the intensive courses can ask too much of students, 7 months ago I didn’t know a word of french and now I can carry on basic conversations. If your goal is fluency then it’s not a bad idea, but half my class failed the final exam, so it depends on which half you think you’ll be in.</p>
<p>How’s their pre-med advising? Is rose hill generally strong in the sciences? How hard is it to switch campuses?</p>
<p>I don’t know specifically about pre-med advising but I can tell you from my own advising experience it’s not a helpful process. The advisors are there to make sure you’re not doing crazy things with your course schedule and that’s about it. Some professors, however, I’ve known to go above and beyond to help me figure out major specific issues.
Rose Hill offers more courses than Lincoln Center and has better facilities, so in terms of which campus, yes. That said I don’t know it to be a particularly popular area of study.
It’s very easy to switch. Obviously you can’t go back and forth, but if you go to one and realize it’s not right it’s basically a matter of paperwork. That said, housing is a different issue. If you want to transfer from LC to RH and need housing it’s not a problem generally (especially with the new dorms), but LC has extremely limited housing and is very difficult to transfer to in that respect. However, I’ve been told you can live at one campus and be a student at another if there’s no available housing and you’ve been guaranteed it.</p>
<p>Thank you, nyc2013!</p>
<p>Thanks for giving your time this way! I think everyone, parents and students alike, have a hundred questions they want answered before sending/going off to college! 
</p>
<p>What math courses do you recommend to fulfill core requirements for a student (my S) who is math-phobic? He’ll probably be at LC in the fall and is excited about every other aspect of the core.</p>
<p>It’s no problem! =]</p>
<p>Finite Math is supposed to be the easiest Math course, from what I’ve heard it covers mostly algebraic material, not even close to calculus work. When he’s scheduling he should keep in mind that he can’t get to the science courses until he gets his math done. Fordham actually sends out course recommendations for math, english, and language though. They base it on SAT’s and high school transcripts I think.</p>