<p>Are you driving or flying</p>
<p>cphelan, I read what you said about your daughter growing up in a “bubble” and just kept nodding to myself. My daughter was also accepted to Fordham and we just returned from New York where we visited the school for the first time on Wed for admitted student day. Overall, we were very impressed with Fordham; the Rose Hill campus is lovely, but like you, were a bit apprehensive as our cab went from Midtown, through Queens and up through the Bronx. Our daughter has grown up in a bucolic setting on Lake Michigan–about as different from the Bronx as you can get. She is now deciding between University of Wisconsin-Madison, Saint Louis University and Fordham. We don’t qualify for any financial aid and she received only a small merit scholarship so if she picks Fordham, it’s going to be very difficult to make that happen. I called the Financial Aid office today and asked if they could adjust the scholarship but was told no unless there was some new hardship we needed to report. We are praying she chooses well and is happy at the school she winds up at. Best of luck to all the students making this important decision in the next two weeks!</p>
<p>Sovereign, at least you held it together until you left. We have photos of DD and me crying our eyes out in her dorm room. And I cried on and off the whole way home.</p>
<p>And she and I still cry everytime I drop her off at the train to go back after a break. </p>
<p>But it’s all good.</p>
<p>Lefty! I understand…and yes…its never easy. LOL. Our kids think we are so tough and little do they know…marshmallows! LOL.</p>
<p>gelato:</p>
<p>Well…the choice is never easy and one has to consider so much…we are not New Yorkers or even Northerners! LOL. Talk about culture shock! </p>
<p>I am glad she saw Fordham and liked it. But I am also sad you didnt select this weekend with Fr. McShane’s speech…he is a good closer! </p>
<p>For the record, don’t take the cab to Fordham from Midtown. What we always did if flying was take the cab to Midtown for our hotel, often the Grand Hyatt above Grand Central…pricey but lovely and VERY convenient. Then you take the Metro North from Grand Central direct to Fordham…it drops you at the gate! Not the subway…the Metro North Train. If driving you stay in hotels in Yonkers or Westchester and drive in as Fordham directs, or you stay in Jersey over by Morristown (lovely area and cheaper than Midtown) and drive in over the GW Bridge, up the Henry Hudson past Manhattan College and cut in at Moshulu Parkway=Van Cortlandt Park directly into the Botanical Gardens and Fordham. </p>
<p>Don’t fear the Bronx. Its no less safe than MidTown Saint Louis and SLU. Kids learn to embrace it and even work there. Plus there are the fabulous Botanical Gardens and Bronx Zoo (free on wednesdays!). </p>
<p>There will be homesickness if she goes away to college. There will be culture shock. There will be dorm drama no matter where she goes. No place is perfect. But…Fordham is a special place and has fabulous faculty who are warm. (I dont bash schools but my kid got into SLU as well and with a LOT of money. We visited and while we liked it, the Dept Head where she was aiming was not all that warm and fuzzy and that killed it right there. Admissions asked us in astonishment why we turned them down and we told them. ) </p>
<p>The education you get at Fordham is both academic and social. You grow up fast in New York and learn to become very independent. I see it now with my kid’s high school friends she still sees…how insular and sheltered they still are at 23…living at home and really havent changed much from high school. Sorta sad. My kid is independent and self assured and has a clear sense of direction and doing grad school. Her visits home now are very different…and that is all good. </p>
<p>What you have to do as a parent is let them take that first step out of the nest and tell them you will be there…but that they are entering adulthood and have to learn to make decisions (including this one about where to go to college) and live with the consequences. </p>
<p>Freshman year is sometimes tumultuous. But by sophomore year they are well on their way…</p>
<p>I hope your daughter picks Fordham. Its going to be okay. Its going to be fun. Its going to be VERY challenging. And she will survive and thrive.</p>
<p>sovereigndebt, as always you give sound, encouraging advice. We couldn’t visit this weekend as D is doing the Billiken Bus In to SLU with other admitted students from the Milwaukee/Chicago areas. Yes, I would have liked to hear the address given by Father McShane but Fordham impressed us anyway. And we took the Metro North back to Grand Central from Fordham and it was great having that right at the gate. I wish we had been able to see a dorm room.</p>
<p>Little bit behind here…but I read a few pages back that Kingsport mentioned that everyone was always kept abreast of the progress of the applications. Not true in my sons case. Got an email that everything was there - actually we got an email that there was an issue turned out it was just a common app glitch. Then we heard absolutely nothing until he was accepted.</p>
<p>At least 2 out of the four school he applied and was accepted kept in contact; 2 did not. We only applied to 4 schools so I’m not sure if we had applied to more if our experience would have been different or more skewed toward having lots of contact.</p>
<p>gelato:</p>
<p>The dorms at Fordham are great. There are many choices and you will have an opportunity to make preferences. I have a strong preference for Queens Court for freshmen. Take a look on Fordham’s website for further details about Queens, but a lot of honors students reside there. Its one of the oldest buildings on campus, but adjacent to the University Church. Its gorgeous inside, with weekly events/presentations by students, a debating society competition, and very convenient to everything on campus. Others like Tierney, North (Loschert) or South. There are good choices for Sophomores, especially those craving air conditioning…though its only needed a few weeks a year. And for Juniors and Seniors there are apartments on campus…living with your best buddies and cooking your own food if you want! </p>
<p>The dorms are all great…excellent communities and kids are tight…not too insular as my kid had friends in almost every dorm. Classes at Fordham all stay pretty much under 30 kids per class…my kid had courses with under 20 kids. </p>
<p>kcdunlap: Glitches happen in admissions. I hope you dont hold that against Fordham. The university is not admissions. The university is its students and faculty. I know that sounds glib, but its true. And with 33,000 applications for an incoming class of 1,800 students, stuff is going to happen. Its not a measure of how they feel about you or your son. Its just the process. Try to take a broader approach when evaluating Fordham…and write down what is really important to you/him. In the end, its a highly personal and subjective decision. No school is perfect and kids will pick a school and forego others. While we hope you pick Fordham, we understand if you don’t. </p>
<p>I could write a book on the foibles of financial aid and our frustrations. But those pale in comparison to the fabulous experiences my kid had…and yes, she got to know Fr. McShane very, very well. </p>
<p>Everyone should know that Fordham has special opportunities for service and honorary societies, unique to Fordham: Rose Hill Society and The Fordham Club. These are special organizations for those selected and who “bleed Maroon and White.” There is the Campion Institute to help kids with prestigious Post Graduate Fellowships like Rhodes, Truman, Fulbright, Boren scholarships. There are several prestigious Honors Institutes of reknown, including the Curran Center. Fordham does very well placing kids into Medical Schools (I think its 86% success rate for pre-med majors…and rising), Law schools (including Yale Law!), Graduate schools (NYU, Columbia and Harvard!), top business schools for MBA. Fordham also has a long history of placing people in important government service positions, including the intelligence community. (See Commencement Speaker this year). </p>
<p>And for fun, Rose Hill is a frequent Hollywood movie location. 5 or 6 major films have been made at Rose Hill with many of them done during the school year and Fordham students serving as silent “extras.” Google that.</p>
<p>sovereigndebt- thanks again for dorm info. We will hopefully see them tomorrow, can’t wait! My dear friend tells a story of leaving her son off at Holy Cross. They got the room all ready, and in walks the roommate seemingly very nice. Everything was going great, and it was soon time to leave as the roommate continued to unpack. He took out a leather box to display on his dresser. My friend said she nearly fainted when he opened it because it contained his KNIFE COLLECTION !!! TRUE STORY !!! My friend asked if he had permission too have the collection and never really got an a straight answer , except to say they were not meant to be used just collected. Needless to say , talk about crying all the way home- OMG !!! Her son said he was a very nice boy, never touched the knives except to dust them occasionally, but he changed roommates the following semester !!!I need to keep away from these stories !!!
gelato; I hear the same excitement and worry in your message- would have loved to have met you and your daughter tomorrow, we could have taken traquilizers together - I told my husband I want to stop at the Bronx Zoo and find where they hide the elephant tranquilizer guns… Im gonna need one that strong for sure !!! !!!</p>
<p>[Fordham</a> Facts](<a href=“http://www.fordham.edu/discover_fordham/facts_26604.asp]Fordham”>http://www.fordham.edu/discover_fordham/facts_26604.asp)</p>
<p>My daughter has accepted Fordham’s offer. She is a competitive fencer - she did not get into her favorite school (Boston College which is DivI). We live in Maryland and she has been attending Catholic schools all her life. Fordham was not her 1st choice until we visited a few weeks ago. We were met by a young man, Matt G. who is a friend of a friend and is a sophomore at Fordham. He took us all over the campus expect the dorms. By the end of our visit my daughter had made up her mind. She is coming to Fordham! Ever since we have been talking about how she is going to decorate her room and how wonderful it is going to be living just 3 1/2 hours by bus from home. She is not certain yet what she wants to major in - she has been accepted into the business school.</p>
<p>Is there anyone with Danish connections coming to Fordham? Anyone from Maryland? I am so happy for her and I am thrilled that she will be meeting and becoming friends with many from this forum. She is planning to participate in the Urban Plunge which is an early move in (3 days) program. Congrats to the incoming Class of 2016!</p>
<p>I am sure a Facebook page is already set up!!! My daughter loved urban plunge</p>
<p>Okay…see this now. LOL. </p>
<p>Urban Plunge is fun and a good way to start. BUT…its also an issue because you don’t get to move on move in day…per se…unless you make another trip up and that seems counter intuitive. </p>
<p>Congrats on being admitted. Being admitted to Gabelli is awesome as they had VERY VERY selective admissions this year (though the admission standards are the same as Rose Hill…they just had HUGE number of applications so it brought the percentage down significantly). </p>
<p>We are glad you are joining the Fordham family! I will ping you. </p>
<p>Not getting into BC is not the end of the world. Disappointing I am sure, but at the end of the day the faculty at Fordham and students are really awesome. I know a faculty member at BC who used to teach at Fordham who actually prefers Fordham to BC! LOL.</p>
<p>Nothing to fear about the Bronx really. Its mostly urban legends…incidents happen there, but they happen in Boston too…in fact BC had a real bad tragedy recently. Sad.</p>
<p>You just have to be smart and common sensical. Dont do stupid things…like wandering around alone, at dark, after drinking. Fordham kids go out in groups and hang in groups. I’ve walked in and around Arthur Ave and eaten there many many times…sometimes late…and had no problems. Excellent food and service. Pasquales across from Marios is one of my favorites.</p>
<p>Fordham is an academic school and she will be challenged. Will she be fencing at Fordham?</p>
<p>My d moved in for urban plunge a few days early. Worked fine for us. We didn’t go to all the hoopla for older daughter, speeches etc, so didn’t feel the need for younger one.'dh hates that stuff. Anyway, while we didn’t get help, it was calm, quiet and enough kids around as urban plunge kept the, pretty busy. </p>
<p>The goodbyes were just as special however.</p>
<p>Yippee !!!- Check is in … daughter is excited and so are we… basket cases…but excited !!! Thanks to all the advice and help for us new bees !Please keep it coming</p>
<p>^^^^ Yippee! Congrats.</p>
<p>Are you supposed to get something after you pay your deposit? I only got a receipt.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am a Fordham Performance track hopeful. I auditoned back
In January and still haven’t heard any word. I called Kara stone and asked
About my status. She told me I would have to wait for a decision.
I believed that I had a great auditioned. I was shown off to both panels.
I’m just worried because its approaching may 1st. 
</p>
<p>Any other performance hopefuls who haven’t heard yet?</p>
<p>^^^ are you a transfer student? Transfer students have different timelines and deadlines for admission. The May 1 deadline is for incoming freshmen, admitted EA and RD.</p>
<p>Yes- I am a transfer student
But I was told at my audition that I would hear
Back by April 1st. The panel knew I was a transfer student…
Oh well… I understand. More waiting. I will try and remain patient 
</p>
<p>Thanks</p>