<p>This is probably a typical question for many prospective applicants regarding NYU and Fordham Lincoln Center, and I don't really know if they've had a thread on this already (they probably have). Anyways, what are the differences between the schools in terms of:</p>
<ul>
<li>Location</li>
<li>Social Life</li>
<li>Financial Aid</li>
<li>Students</li>
<li>Academic Environment</li>
<li>Professors</li>
<li>Student Life (Food, Dorms, etc.)</li>
<li>Resources Available to Students</li>
<li>Diversity</li>
</ul>
<p>As well as any more that anybody else can add.</p>
<p>I haven’t attended either (I’m at FCRH), so hopefully someone will correct or back up my hearsay.
-Location: NYU is in a “post-hipster” gentrified area next to the now-gentrifying East Village and ungentrified Alphabet City, while Fordham is between the safe UWS, tourist/business-y Midtown, and gentrifying Hell’s Kitchen.
-Social life: Fordham LC has one on-campus dorm. NYU has buildings all over the place and no real campus. Might be easier to meet people at Fordham, but either way your social life will be what you make it.
-Financial Aid: NYU is notoriously stingy. Fordham much more generous with merit aid.
-Students: More Catholic at Fordham. Artsy kids at each, some hipsters too. The kids who went to NYU from my HS year were all rich daddy’s-girls. NYU kids probably a little smarter on average, but there’ll be brilliant kids and slackers (and brilliant slackers) at each. And each will have students that make you wonder how they got in.
-Academic environment: NYU has more classes and more majors (“Iberian Studies”…?) because it has nearly 15x as many undergrads. (NYU is massive.) Introductory classes may be larger at NYU. Some students carp about Fordham’s core and some enjoy it. Probably similarly rigorous. No b-school at LC yet.
-Professors: Each will have many hits and a few misses.
-Student Life: On-campus food at Fordham has bottomed out and is getting better, but you don’t have to buy a meal plan. Dunno about NYU. Each has abundant off-campus options. Most importantly, a Chipotle is within walking distance of each.
-Resources: The full monty at both. Unless you’re looking for condoms. Can’t get condoms from Fordham.
-Diversity: NYU has more religious diversity. This may or may not be your thing. NYU may be slightly more diverse geographically and racially–again, I dunno for sure.</p>
<p>Fordham is a better fit for many. Then again, there must be a reason NYU is able to charge more students more money. Visit both. If you sit in on classes, try to catch at least two at each.</p>
<p>I think of FCLC as a kind of FCRH/NYU hybrid. Rose Hill is quite distinct from NYU/Columbia, and I recommend you consider it too.</p>
<p>One recurring theme about both schools is that LC lacks diversity and NYU prides itself on that. What can you say about the diversity at LC or Fordham overall?</p>
<p>You can see that Fordham actually has higher percentages of black and Hispanic students. The difference is religious diversity. Because Fordham is a Catholic university, it has a higher percentage of Catholics (and consequently lower percentages of Muslims, Jews, atheists, Protestants, etc). NYU has no religious affiliation and attracts fewer Catholics. There are still Jews, Hindus, atheists, Jews, etc. at Fordham, just fewer of them, because there are more Catholics.</p>
<p>Ahaha no way, man. You have to take one theology class for the core, but that’s it. Whether you get a “Catholic Fordham” experience depends mostly on whom you hang out with–you’ll see the Jesuits around campus, but Jesuits are often pretty liberal themselves, and the faculty and staff don’t force anything on you. (One of my more conservative friends actually dislikes how liberal some of the theology faculty here are…)</p>
<p>Socially, you’ll meet outspoken atheists, you’ll meet people who plan to join the Society of Jesus, and you’ll meet everyone in between. Catholics being Catholics, they don’t evangelize like some Protestants do. I’m an agnostic and have never felt “religion-pushed.”</p>
<p>Speaking of the Theology class! I heard that some people hate it, and some people are just “meh”. How is it?</p>
<p>And in terms of the Core classes… I’ve been in core curriculum practically all of high school. Is the Core curriculum at Fordham the same way? Is it as bad as people say?</p>
<p>I hear it depends a lot on who teaches. Didn’t take it myself since I’m in the honors program…</p>
<p>Don’t come to Fordham in spite of the core, come because of it! The non-honors core is very flexible, and unless you’re already mad focused on some particular discipline (in which case I wouldn’t recommend Fordham) you really should be exploring new subjects in college. Many of the requirements can be satisfied with AP credit, too.</p>
<p>Okay on another note, how do the two schools (NYU and LC) differ in terms of location? I do know that NYU is located in the ultra-artsy/cultural Greenwich and that LC is located in the wealthy Upper West Side.</p>
<p>NYU dominates the east-center of Greenwich Village. All the artists/bohemians were long ago priced out to SoHo/TriBeCa and then to Brooklyn. Now the Village (west and north especially) is mostly just a fancy neighborhood for people who prefer low-rises. The East Village still hints at the “old NYC” Bloomberg has tried to stamp out–on Monday night, for example, I subway’d down on a whim and shared a smoke with the infamous L.E.S. Jewels–and there’s a rowdy nightlife there where it’s too easy to buy just about anything. Several subways are within a couple minutes’ walk.</p>
<p>I’ve never tried to go out in Midtown. There aren’t crowds on the sidewalks at 3am like there are in the East Village. Some would say it’s a more “boring” area. But in the daytime, I like LC’s location better. It’s not really on the UWS, but rather between that and Midtown West, a gentrifying area with mixed low- and high-rise development. There’s good food nearby, Central Park is a block away, and 15 minutes’ walking gets you to Broadway shows. You’re also 10-15min away from wonderful tourist traps like Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Carnegie Hall, Bryant Park, and the natural history museum. (Don’t listen to people who tell you you shouldn’t enjoy tourist traps. Absurd.) LC is a small college in a big neighborhood instead of a big college in a small neighborhood. Columbus Circle a block over has 1-A-B-C-D trains.</p>
<p>You really do have to check out the locations for yourself, though.</p>
<p>Religion isn’t pushed at all. It’s around, but not forced upon you. </p>
<p>At the Parent’s orientation, I forget who it was who was speaking, but he was talking about saying goodbye to our children and he started going through the milestones in your child’s life, and he said “the communions, the bar mitzvahs…” I loved that he recognized that everyone sitting there was not Catholic.</p>
<p>anglegriderman: Sounds like an amazing location to be in! What do you mean by “there aren’t crowds on the sidewalks at 3am”? </p>
<p>LeftyLou: I know that what I am asking may be a petty question or even stupid one, but are there “cliques” that form as a result of religion? Or are people usually integrated with one another?</p>
<p>Lolol, all I meant was that you see clusters of people “going out” in the East Village into the wee hours, while around LC there are fewer such “going out clusters.” If you ever stand at the corner of Arthur Ave and Fordham Rd at 11:30 on a Friday you’ll know what I mean: students and other young people (especially girls) go to bars in packs.</p>
<p>The very religious tend to hang out together because they like talking about Catholic things or because they spend time with each other in campus ministry. Outside that small circle, there is no religious self-segregation I’ve noticed.</p>
<p>Oops, I put my daughter’s reply on the other thread. I’ll put it here too.</p>
<p>People are pretty integrated. Sure, the kids who are part of Campus Ministry hang out together just because they see each other there, but religion really isn’t a factor that way.</p>