<p>Does anyone know about Fordham’s premed program? How strong is it, research availability, med school acceptance rates, etc?</p>
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I don’t know where you get that from my posts. It is such a complete mis-characterization that I would have to attribute it to the lateness of the hour. S received an offer. Do we appreciate that? Yes. Do we feel entitled to more? No. Do we wish it were more? Sure. Is that your definition of “entitlement”? </p>
<p>Some posters on this thread have suggested that if you have A, B, C, then you are probably going to get a larger offer. I’m making the point, as you just did in YOUR post, that beyond a narrow group (NMF, etc.) there is no set criteria. It just depends on what they want at a particular time, and the qualifications of the students who applied, and some of the merit awards are bumped up when need is considered as well. I believe this year they had around 30,000 applications, so the competition is very high.</p>
<p>I’m making the point, as you just did in YOUR post, that beyond a narrow group (NMF, etc.) there is no set criteria.</p>
<p>I completely agree. Beyond NMF, merit is completely unpredictable. I think things like state of origin, major, course curriculum, test scores, having gone to a Jesuit high, etc, get taken into consideration. And, since some of their merit seems to be competitive and/or major-related, there’s no way to predict what a person might get.</p>
<p>Last year, my D rec’d what was called the Loyola scholarship for $8000 annually. There could not have been a need component as we did not file for FA. She had pretty good SAT (2140), and average GPA ( approx 3.75 weighted). We are from a neighboring northeastern state (no geographical advantage), not first generation or URM. She did attend a Catholic HS so had a fair amount of community service as well as youth ministry EC’s.<br>
While that amount doesn’t make much of a dent in the COA of a private such as Fordham, since we knew we would were not applying for FA, we were grateful for any merit $$ that would decrease her COA.
So I guess the moral of the story is that in the absence of clear cut merit/scholarship guidelines, if the school appeals to you, you have stats that are in the upper ranges of their accepted data you should definitely apply!
And to your other question, the campus is definitely in an urban neighborhood, but the campus itself is lovely (Rose Hill) with a Ram van for transport to the Lincoln Center campus as well as both subway and metro north train stations making it easy to visit other areas of the city.</p>
<p>thank you bhmomma!</p>
<p>I know merit aid can be unpredictable, but I appreciate everyone’s information they have given me.</p>
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I think that’s what my d. got as the merit part of her award - I’m pretty sure the rest was need based. My d. submitted her ACT score, which was 28. She had a 3.85 uw high school GPA & was graduated near the top of her high school class, but not #1.</p>
<p>Oh and also, if I remember correctly, the scholarship information for Fordham came later than the acceptance, which was not similar to other schools where she rec’d a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>St Josephs and Seton Hall are supposed to be good with merit money.</p>
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Actually, it’s a scholarship for National Merit Semifinalists. Doesn’t seem like a big difference, but it means an EA applicant can receive the award in December, without having to wait on Finalist confirmation, which is nice.</p>