<p>Fordham moved up from 67th to 61st place as a national university in U.S. News & World Reports annual Americas Best Colleges in 2008. In 2009, where do you expect Fordham to be? Crack the top 50? Stay the same? Just curious what ya'll think...</p>
<p>either stay the same or move up a few places.. like #58 or so. as you go higher up the list, movement becomes harder, and there's the economics crisis that can affect endowments and stuff like that. it would be wonderful if it would break the fifties.. but i doubt we will have such a large jump.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that it will go up. I think that with the credit crunch those merit awards are going to look awfully good. This year Fordham would have cost about the same as some out of state flagships for my son. For the same money, he would have gotten a smaller school, cozier environment. The cost would be $20K more for any comparable or near comparable private school. It would have to be a top, top school to make it worth while to pay that, or something that is truly special that the student wants that he cannot get at Fordham.</p>
<p>very good point there. i hope people think that way this year. unfortunately some people still prefer to pay the premium for a highly ranked school, instead of going for the lower but more affordable one.</p>
<p>That will always be the case for the very top schools. But I believe we are going to see some heavy duty thinking about the value of a school these days. There may be a line to pay the full freight for HPY but it may come down to cost when you are talking the difference between say Fordham and Wake Forest or Bucknell. I know there were some tough decisions made at some families where the preferences were just not worth the cost. Now throw in some credit lines being pulled and lending at a premium.</p>
<p>why is that so unfortunate? assuming you have the money and are not in a poor financial situation, why not send your child to a more competitive, selective university (assuming he/she wants to go there) rather than a lower school just because it's cheaper?</p>
<p>Well you have to keep in mind that just cuz the college is more competitive and selective doesnt mean everything will turn out better in the future. In my opinion, students should apply where they fit not just where the rankings are high</p>
<p>I got my bachelor's from Fordham a few years ago. Now I'm a famous university (in another country) doing graduate work. I don't care if Fordham's 60th or 60,000th on the rankings. It's literally the best university I've ever been inside of, and I've seen a lot of places that are supposedly better. Great profs and an administration that you can actually meet with, not need a papal audience to see. So don't worry about those rankings. I recommend that everyone go to Fordham (but sometimes that's not practical etc ...)</p>
<p>Rankings in USNWR are heavily geared towards Peer Reviews, that means other universities views of Fordham. In short, its a popularity contest to a large extent.</p>
<p>However, the higher the rankings the more interest top students show in applying and attending. </p>
<p>Fordham will continue to rise in the ranks, in my opinion. It will break the top 50.</p>
<p>i'm not saying it's all about rankings; fordham was a 'safety school' for me, but I favored it over other colleges ranked more highly, because I liked the school and the atmosphere. it wasn't until I went to open house that I realized it wasn't the right 'fit' for me. I still like the college though, I have friends there so I've gone back and visited. anyway, the user above me was making it sound like people should go to fordham simply because it's more affordable for some, although like most good private colleges, its expensive.</p>
<p>Okay. Well.....its a fabulous school. My D is at Rose Hill. What I want to know is what happened at Open House that made you think its not the right fit for you? Granted, no school is perfect for everybody, and "fit" is highly subjective. But just curious. Is there something that we can clarify for you?</p>
<p>If its a safety, the chances are it may well be a really good fit for you and you will excel. That is just the law of averages. As in, you will be challenged but not overwhelmed. You will have time to do extra curricular stuff and not let your grades suffer. The road is littered with kids who stretch academically only to find they are unhappy, stressed all the time, and have no time do anything except study and write papers. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>It's quite alright, there's nothing I need clarified; I am actually a freshman somewhere else now and happy there. The college I currently attend challenges me but I'm still getting pretty good grades and am definitely not being stetched. But thanks. </p>
<p>I guess Fordham just didn't click with me at open house. We were divided into groups where we spoke to upperclassmen and other accepted students alone. The two upperclassmen girls, to be really blunt, came off as incredibly stupid and unaware. They were friendly though. Anyway I asked one why she chose Fordham, and she said that she debated between Fordham's business school and NYU's stern, and that she felt NYU would be too much of a challenge for her, so she chose Fordham, because there was more support there. Then I remember we went around the room and all said why we chose Fordham, and like 3 kids said something like, "well, I love the city but I got rejected by nyu/columbia/barnard, so..." and that turned me off. And then one of the prospective students asked if Fordham would ever join the Ivy league, and the upperclassmen girl was like, "Well, no, but why would we want to? Fordham has a more diverse atmosphere than ivy league schools, so we're better in that sense." And that just turned me off, because Ivy league schools offer a great amount of diversity in terms of everything but intellectual capability of students, and there's nothing wrong with Fordham not being in it, but they didn't have to insult other schools so much. I remember they also went on to insult Columbia, Boston C, Fairfield, Villanova, Georgetown, and a couple other schools, and it just bothered me the way they continually insulted other colleges to prop themselves up. Anyway, that was Fordham students talking, NOT administration. </p>
<p>Also, it bothered me that at my hs, a lot of the kids going to fordham were the 'slacker' type students who floated by on B grades. Don't know how they got into Fordham! Some of those kids were well-known pot users. That's not a poor reflection on Fordham itself, it's just stuff that bothered me personally. I would like to add I think it's a really good college and like it a lot, but I just clicked more with the atmosphere of another school.</p>